Hollywoodland
It’s interesting how we can get two tantalizing fictionalized accounts of true Hollywood mysteries- from two very different filmmakers- and how neither one turns out quite as you would expect or hope. The first was “The Black Dahlia”- about the unsolved murder of a wannabe actress- which Brian De Palma delivered in high style, but with little regard to real dramatic weight due to both a weak script and some miscasting of key roles. The second is “Hollywoodland,” from first-time feature director Allen Coulter (though he cut his teeth on acclaimed HBO series’ like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” and “Six Feet Under”), which takes a seedier look at Hollywood in exploring the mysterious death of George Reeves, who played Superman on the popular ’50s kids show before going up to his room on June 16, 1959, and ending up dead. Originally ruled a suicide, some of the physical evidence (including two bullet holes in the floor) leads Reeves’ mother (Lois Smith, making the most of her limited screen time in a terrific performance) to hire desparate private detective Louis Simo (the fictionalized creation of astute screenwriter Paul Bernbaum, played by the excellent Adrien Brody) to investigate who might have murdered Reeves’ death.
Bernbaum’s screenplay wisely doesn’t try and solve Reeves’ death like “Dahlia” did its’ mystery (though no doubt the story had more impact in James Ellroy’s novel than it did in De Palma’s film), but it does try and point us in a couple of directions without giving completely into conspiracy (it doesn’t rule out suicide), which would be the easy way out. It doesn’t rule out murder, however; maybe his young fiancee Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney) did have something to do with it, finding out that Reeves’ was not only not as rich as one would expect (the Superman gig didn’t pay much), but also looking to call off the wedding. A more likely choice would be Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins, with a bark to match his character’s bite), the gangster-turned-general manager at MGM (makes sense, doesn’t it?) who looks after his wife Toni’s best interests (Toni is played by Diane Lane in a memorable look at both manipulation and love- she did both to Reeves in the film’s view), even if her best interests include a not-so-secret affair with Reeves. So what if he never made a film for MGM- he dumped Mannix’s wife for a pretty young thing he screwed in New York; a slight like that can’t go unpunished. The ending- where Simo is no closer to the truth- is right out of the film noir of the time, and though Coulter’s pacing of the film feels indulgent and uneven at over two hours, he evokes the feel of that genre- which has always looked at the seedy side of human nature (both in and out of Hollywood)- effortlessly through the cinematography by Jonathan Freeman and music by relative newcomer Marcelo Zarvos. That alone makes Coulter- who’ll no doubt nail down the rhythms and rules of theatrical filmmaking- a director to watch.
You’ll notice that, up until now, I’ve avoided discussing Ben Affleck in the role of Reeves, for which he recently won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. It’s not out of disappointment- this is Affleck’s best work since 2002’s “Changing Lanes,” and it belongs in discussions of his equally-strong work in early triumphs like “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Boiler Room,” and “Good Will Hunting” (and sorry, I would even include “Jersey Girl” on that list). If Affleck is better remembered for everything but his acting in recent years (and “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Gigli,” and “Daredevil”- among others- make well sure of that), “Hollywoodland” serves as a reminder of how good this actor really is when he has a strong script and is lead by a good director. It’s not hard to see a little of Affleck in Reeves, either, when one considers the scandel and headlines surrounding his off-camera life- his romances with J. Lo and Jennifer Garner have garnered him more press than his movies- and it’s that, “I’ve been there” authenticity that makes his performance so good. The pain in Reeves’ eyes as he watches what he hopes will be a break in the Oscar-winning “From Here to Eternity” turn into a cruel joke by the audience. The resolute sadness as he walks up the stairs that June evening of his death. The fear of accepting where he’s put himself as an actor in his interactions with Toni, in his work on the “Adventures of Superman” set, and in a film reel he does as an “audition” for a wrestling gig that makes it painfully obvious he isn’t up for the task. Affleck does right by Reeves in his sympathetic portrayal, and his haunted work gives “Hollywoodland” its’ sense of loss. This is inspired acting by an actor who isn’t at the end just yet- he’s still got some fight in him.
