Welcome to Hollywood: the prevailing antics here may be familiar to some, but for those not hip to the drama of reel life, “Hollywoodland,” starring Ben Affleck, Adrien Brody and Diane Lane, provides a little insight via a murder mystery.
George Reeves (Affleck) is fed up with starring in B-movies. He gets his first real look at Tinseltown after falling in love with the enchanting Toni Mannix (Lane), wife of MGM studio mogul Eddie Mannix.
With her active libido and mothering instincts, Toni has gobs of free time and cash with which to pamper the young Reeves, and, safe in her arms, he can afford to pilot a risky new series titled “The Adventures of Superman.”
Sure enough, the Man of Steel gimmick takes off, leaving Reeves wallowing in the misery of never completely fulfilling his dream to be taken seriously as an actor and to direct a major motion picture. He hits the bottle hard and does not stop until he purportedly orchestrates his own death with a bullet to the head.
After Reeves allegedly commits suicide, Louis Simo (Brody), a private detective, sets out to prove it was something more.
“Hollywoodland,” directed by Allen Coulter, may promise big names to bring its characters to life, but even the cast cannot squelch the highly depressing overtones resounding throughout the flick.
The movie is a pitiful demonstration of an immorality with which we are only too familiar. What’s worse, it does not even bother to give its audience hope.
The film’s most interesting aspect is its structure: a series of flashbacks. While they have proven a valuable tool in other movies, these flashbacks do not intrigue so much as they abruptly cut off one story line to pick up another.
As a result, much of “Hollywoodland” is spent deducing just who exactly the main character is, Reeves or Simo. And just when it appears the two story lines might coincide with some spectacular moral lesson, the movie ends.
