| Overall Grade: |
C- |
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| Story: |
C- |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
C- |
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| Visuals: |
D |
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This Hollywood Is The Land of Broken Dreams
by Eric (movies profile)
Sep 16, 2007
56
of
63 people found this review helpful
It's strange looking back at watching Hollywoodland only a few minutes ago that I realize that this movie didn't have any effect on me. On the surface, it looks like a period movie, it moves like a period movie, and the acting was rather good. But in it's heart of hearts, it left no sadness for George Reeves' death or anything else that happened. In the end, I felt like I just sat down for two hours.
Hollywoodland is about the appearent suicide of George Reeves (shown in flashback as Ben Affleck), who played Superman on television in the early 50s. When a second-rate private investigator (Adrian Brody) is put on the scent of murder most foul by circustances putting him in the employ of Reeves' mother (Lois Smith). He quickly learns about Reeves' affair with a movie mogul's wife (Diane Lane). We see the flashbacks of how they meet, how he gets the Superman job against his will (but not foolish enough to turn down an opportunity), and his rise to fame. At the same time, the P.I. is also trying to juggle this job with another that comes to serious consequences. He's also trying to make time for his son, and trying to get his name in the papers every chance he gets. We see him piece together conspiracy theories that are more insane than Oliver Stone could possibly dream up. And ultimately, the film starts to not be about what happened to Reeves that night and starts becoming about two men trapped into lives that neither feel they can control and will probably end the same way.
With that said, this movie feels clumsy, confusing at times, and more times than not, utterly boring. It forgets to give us a reason to care about either Reeves or the P.I., not to mention the vast many supporting characters along the way. It feels like a retro version of True Hollywood Story. The movie wants us to feel sad for Reeves just because he played Superman. The flashbacks are uneven and confusing at times. It seperates the present with the past in murky color schemes: The past makes us feel like we're seeing things from the bottom of a bottle of brandy. The present: tequilla.
For such a boring movie, I have to admit that the acting was definately impressive for such bland material. Brody, Lane, Bob Hopkins, Molly Parker, and Robin Tunney perform like Shakespeare performers doing a High School play while thinking they're on Broadway. They don't let the material hurt their performances and don't get bogged down in the endless feel of alcohol in the scenes. But the performance that I will be applauding for the Oscars is Affleck for his Reeves. There are times that you can feel his sadness and disappointment. Affleck himself also knows the bitter sting of typecasting and heckling. There is a scene where Reeves looks at the grey and black Superman costume (it was to maximize for black and white filming) where he knows that he will never see his star shine any brighter than it has. And at that point, we see that perhaps Affleck also sees that as well.
As for Sopranos-director Allen Coultier, this is some of the worst directing I have seen this year. His choices of filters induce headaches, he clutters his shots in so clausterphobicly that I almost wanted to step out of the nearly empty theatre twice. His choice in editors was so bad, I almost wanted to go up to the projection room and re-cut the film myself.
All in all, I have fallen asleep through better films than this. But I did find some scenes to be very worthwhile in a sea or boredom and sadness. But if you're looking for a provactive and insightful film about the land of Hollywood, this one will leave wishing you'd stayed home. |
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