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Why wasn't this film better?

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 11/03/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This so-called "fact-based" melodrama about the death of "Superman" actor George Reeves had all the potential in Hollywood to become a blockbuster of monumental proportion. It took an event based on reality from the golden age of Hollywood studios (the action took place during 1959), it added authentic Hollywood scenery and location shooting, and it had a cast of masterful and beautiful stars (Adrien Brody and Ben Affleck as the male leads, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins and wonderfully sinful Robin Tunney in support) blended in a Tinseltown mystery that had all the potential to be the first "Chinatown" of the new millennium. Instead, this movie was a flop and a bore. Why is that?



First, a brief synopsis for those that haven't seen it. TV star George Reeves (Affleck) kills himself, the Los Angeles police declare it a suicide and close the case, Reeves' mother hires private investigator Brody to investigate the case, which she says is a murder, and his investigation leads to a story told in flashback and real time sequences. While at time atmospheric and involving, the storyline has bumps and cliches to overcome.



Brody, probably the most talented actor now in Hollywood, recieves poor direction as the whimsically understated investigator Louis Simo, who just happens to be a divorced father living on the fringe of the P.I. fraternity. His characterization in this film is more cliche than living, breathing three-dimensional person, although he has effective mind sequences late in the film when he concludes, first, the Reeves was inadvertently killed by his lover and, second, that he was murdered and, third, that he did himself in.



Of the remaining stars in the cast, only Hoskins has the potential to approach Brody as an actor. He has a one-dimensional role as a Hollywood big shot and cuckold husband to Lane, who plays Reeves lover and entree to the "Superman" role. Tunney, playing Reeves later lover and fiancee, was convincing in her bad girl role but also monochromatic, pointing out another shortcoming in this film -- unimaginative direction. These actors all did well with their parts as moveable cardboard cutouts while not one particularly distinguished themselves.



Furthermore, the script and pace of the film did little to involve viewers. Instead of building a slow web of deceipt and corruption a al "Chinatown", this script meandered all over the place with far too many side trips. First it was as a mystery; second it was a portrayal of the cliched life of Brody's character; third it was a peek behind the scenes at the way things are done by Hollywood studios; fourth it was a murder msytery involving too many characters and too many subplots that took the viewer away from the main storyline. In one of Simo's subplots, illustrating a failure among many failures in his life, one of his other clients kills his wife, who he'd hired Simo to follow. This side trip -- which took up three scenes in the movie -- added nothing to this film and betrayed its raison d'etre.



I don't know how long it's been since I saw a film that less met my lowered expectations than "Hollywoodland". I'd have to go all the way back to 1980 and "The Formula", where the worst editing in film history wasted the talents of George C. Scott, Marlon Brando and other great actors in another mystery about a timely issue of that day and ours -- the machinations of increasing gasoline prices. So chalk up "Hollywoodland" to the junk heap of films that had classic potential and instead became mediocrities."