HOLLYWOODLAND (2006) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Allen Coulter
Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck,
Bob Hoskins, Molly Parker, Lois Smith,
Robin Tunney, Joe Spano, Larry Cedar
The life and death of Superman: a murder mystery about what might've happened to George Reeves, TV's original Man of Steel, who turned up dead from a gunshot wound to the head during a Hollywood party in 1959. The story plays out along two narrative tracks. In flashbacks, Ben Affleck plays Reeves, a serious actor of moderate talent, affably trying to hustle his way to a level of professional respectability that's beyond his reach. In a later time frame, Adrien Brody plays Louis Simo, a low-rent private eye who becomes obsessed with the people and events surrounding Reeves' death. It's an interesting matchup. Both men are dream chasers, and both are tenacious enough to believe they can make the big time. Both are in over their heads. Brody, who' a very good actor but an unlikely tough guy, seems miscast. Affleck, whose range is more limited, makes Reeves so transparently vain and shallow, you wonder where the performance ends and the actor behind it begins. You could argue that the flashback segments, at least, should be in black and white, but the use of washed-out color works well, too. There's a bit of "Citizen Kane" in "Hollywoodland" (but no "Rosebud"), a little "Lone Star", a hint of "Ed Wood" and more than a touch of "L.A. Confidential". And you know what? If he'd come along 50 years earlier, Ben Affleck would've made a pretty good TV Superman.
Bob Hoskins
(1942-2014)
