DVD Review: Hollywoodland

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - In his feature film directorial debut, Allen Coulter delivers Hollywoodland, a story based on the real-life mysterious suicide scandal of George Reeves, television’s original Superman. Taking place in 1959 Tinseltown, Hollywoodland stars Ben Affleck as Reeves, who was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Adrien Brody plays Louis Simo, a private investigator hired by Reeves’ grief-stricken mother (Lois Smith), who delves into the actor’s life and begins to investigate Reeves’ suicide as potentially more.

The film taps into a conspiracy mentality that eludes to murder being a potential cause of Reeves’ death. A moody and mostly dark film, Hollywoodland delivers varying ideas that perhaps Reeves’ tumultuous life was ended intentionally. Hollywoodland tells a story of a love triangle between Reeves, his lover Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), and young starlet Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney). Reeves’ unstable love life is compounded by a career he is unhappy with, leaving little wonder he killed himself.

Though Ben Affleck delivers a surpringly strong performance, Adrien Brody is the crux of any quality the film possesses. Though his character is a bit slimy and in search of a conscience, Brody delivers a fine performance. The remaining cast is slightly better than good, but not great. However, the story line itself could be to blame for some of the humdrum. It’s a compelling enough story, but fails to stay on focus at times.

In the end, Hollywoodland was left out of the running for any Oscars. While certainly not the worst film ever made, it falls short of engaging. Consider renting it when there’s nothing else to see and you aren’t in need of lightheartedness.

Yuddy Rating: A Dud

-JB