Movie Review: Hollywoodland

November 7, 2009

 
 

 
 

 
 

I really love this movie. It’s a period piece (which I love to begin with) set in 1959, and revolves around the death of the actor who played Superman on TV, George Reeves. This movie gives us an ultimately sad portrait of the Hollywood lifestyle, in spite of the fun of the hanky-panky, and even asks us solemnly, and convincingly, to grow-up by the end. All the performances are great, the sets are perfect, and the script is a labor of love, so detailed, so rich in inspiration, so nicely paced, so intertwined in its plot like a Jane Austen novel, it can only be marveled at.

 

Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), a private investigator, looks into the death Reeves. While the official story called it a suicide, certain irregularities, however, have been unearthed by Simo and lead him to the conclusion it was murder. He encounters considerable resistance for this conclusion along the way, thereby sparking our suspicions, from the LAPD and the studio executives. He gets beaten up a couple of times, his girlfriend cuckolds him, his ex-wife shuns him, his young son of about five withdraws further and further from him, and a separate client in a separate case murders his own wife, leaving Simo shattered emotionally. It’s a tough, constant struggle for Mr. Louis Simo against the world.

 
 

Brody plays Simo as an in-your-face tough guy, a gum-chewing, gum-spitting-out, cigarettes-addicted, wife-cheating, seedy, 24-hour stubble sharp-dressing rogue-charmer with a heart of gold. Brody pulls it off perfectly, and captures the imagination. Ben Affleck, similarly, captures the imagination in his portrayal of George Reeves. Affleck gives us a very moving, evocative, poignant, and even elegant picture of an actor who never made the really big-time and who despises himself for it. Affleck nails it. His portrait is plausible and at ease, a portrait of a public figure sharing the same profession.

 
 

Diane Lane plays September in her May-September romance with Reeves. She provides a perfect depiction of the insecurity and pain of loving someone completely who unfortunately doesn’t feel quite as passionate in return. Lane hits the perfect note of jealousy and the horror of romantic abandonment. In one scene, she’s arguing about career stuff with Reeves, and she tells him basically that he’s out of shape. She then taps him under the chin to demonstrate his growing portliness, and she does it a little harder than necessary to make the proximate point — Reeves understands she’s making another point all together: she’s too young for you, come back to me. If Reeves so much as talks casually to another woman, Lane etches the pain on the face of her character.

 
 

The movie ultimately belongs to Simo/Brody, however. His investigation leads him further and further into a cascade of revelations that disillusion and embitter him. Even the very purpose of the investigation loses its meaning: his original client in the case has made an utter fool of him. In addition, he suffers several emotional upheavals in his personal life during the case. Weaving through the plot periodically, in moody, atmospheric scenes, the organizing leitmotif wends its way: Simo runs through in his mind the various possibilities as to the manner of Reeves’ death, and at the end he seems to consider that suicide, in spite of the murderous depravity of the Hollywood world he finds himself in, is actually just as plausible an explanation as the several murder scenarios. He realizes he’ll never prove the corrupt studio-head (played perfectly by Bob Hoskins), has murdered Reeves in bizarre revenge for Reeves’ having left Diane Lane’s character.

 
 

Quite often, mystery stories end with the male detective disillusioned, roughed-up, and angry at having been played by his female client. That happens here, too. Simo believed goodness existed in the world outside, and that with courage and determination, he could humbly assist its victory in his own way. Not to be. Goodness can only be found in oneself, by moral reformation. Don’t go looking for it outside in the world, ready-made. Simo comes to this conclusion through suffering, and has become a better man by the end. He overcomes self-absortion and its convincing lures, and gets in touch with the reality of how deeply he’s been hurting people he cares about by his manner of living and attitude. He realizes, in spite of his ability to charm women, that he has not lived up to the responsibilities of manhood. He finally regains innocence through these insights into himself and the world. In this regard, this movie is a bit like The Hustler, wherein Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) finds grim redemption in suffering and moral reformation after the grisly suicide of his girlfriend. For this commitment to growth, both these movies are valuable and irreplaceable. Hollywoodland, however, is ultimately not as tragic as The Hustler, since the protagonist hears the voice of doom in time.