"Hollywoodland" (2006) - Movie Review

I would have liked to either see a non-fictional biopic of George Reeves (Ben Affleck) or a fictional film on failed investigative operative Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) in “Hollywoodland” which is unable to get a grip on juggling both of that in same film. George Reeves put on the suit in 1950’s TV serial “Adventures of Superman” and the film in attempt of spicing it up with the controversial theories about his death misses the man being typecasted as this comic hero for rest of his life and his lonely fight towards an acting career he longed.

Affleck has taken the role in an unexpected candidness. This character falls for an older woman Toni Mannix (Diane Lane) for career prospects and regrets his decision later been put into something he got paid but never really want to be stuck in forever. Allen Coulter, the director should have stuck with the factual biopic of this charismatic and yet been disregarded failures in unusual forms. It is an area unexplored by many who would like to see their favourite characters and in turn take it to the real life star to be punched in as their toy in democratic arrogance through ratings. It is no wonder Hollywood is tough but a fame getting hated in period of time is a sad fact on this persona who had a passion for making films.

Louis Simo is the typical emotionally and financially broke down PI people would find in noir movies. Brody represents a guy with lean stature and unknown history with his past family of ex-wife Laurie (Molly Parker) and their kid Evan (Zach Mills). He barely has strong relationship with both of them and it is draining away in Laurie’s shift in companionship. Simo’s drive towards getting into the investigation of declared suicide of Reeves is money from George’s mother Helen (Lois Smith). The movie then takes the career and personal life been intertwined in George’s story in flash back. And the film made entirely of it would have made more sense than analyzing the death.

The film taken very well has good pitch on its story frame. It has a controversial scenario with a detective outline. It is multi-segmented material in the aim of covering both the suspense and the story behind the suited man. Initially it did work well combining the present and past but later does one realize that the present does not make sense on this PI character of Brody. His skill in job is a shady obtainment of information unrevealed and the edge of getting closer to the truth or the driving factor is always unknown.

In terms of performance I liked Ben Affleck for a quite dedicated and even a daring attempt to take up this role. While the world in 50s saw a courageous icon in Reeves as superman, he was a regular man losing his identity for the character. His personal life looming and burying his quest for real acting is just a spark and there is an intense scene when a kid points a loaded gun on Reeves dressed as superman wanting to see the bullet bounce. Such is the impact of this comic character on TV towards kids that the glory became a career obstruction. Affleck gives that in a downy and sympathetic role. Especially the sample film he makes for his final option to wrestle is touching and sad.

The tan over the film is edgy and the soggy look of it represents both these male characters in shambles. Simo crawling through his life barely while Reeves in his desperate struggles to come out of the shadows of superman. This connecting persona of depression and dissatisfaction in life for these men is “Hollywoodland” which make more sense on words than the film. In the film it is a half baked presentation on those men failing to satiate and do justice to both of them.

“Based on true events/story” tag does not always means the perfect depiction of facts and it can never be recreated but an effort towards the purity of the events is a film’s beauty and giving a prism of true emotions glares past the masked secondary story telling. “The Last King of Scotland” failed in my perspective despite an Oscar winning role of Forest Whitaker. “Hollywoodland” while keeps you occupied giving theories and no conclusion as expected could have been a better movie than it presents itself by capitalizing more on Affleck’s performance.