It’s possible that comparisons between Hollywoodland and L.A. Confidential are inevitable — and just wait until The Black Dahlia opens. Just as inevitable, perhaps, is the Oscar talk for this early contender. Let’s just get this out of the way right up front: it’s no L.A. Confidential (and don’t even get me started on what movie should have won best picture that year). That said, however, Hollywoodland is a semi-engrossing film, and the reason might surprise you: Ben Affleck.
Hollywoodland (directed by Allen Coulter) tells the story of George Reeves (Affleck), who played Superman on television in the 1950s. The persona of Superman so overshadowed Reeves’ career that he had trouble playing anything else after that. When he is found dead in his bedroom after a party with a few friends, questions arise as to whether he took his own life (the official story) or whether he was murdered. Private investigator Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) is hired by Reeves’ mother (Lois Smith) to find out. Simo’s investigations reveal a seedy side of Hollywood, the grime beneath the glitz, as he probes the relationships between Reeves and his fiance Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney) and Reeves and his former lover Toni Mannix (a brilliant Diane Lane), who is the wife of studio head Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins). As with most murder mysteries, motives abound and alibis are scarce.
The movie shows in Roshomon-like sequences various interpretations of Reeves’ death and leaves it open at the end. I agree with the filmmakers that the final possibility is probably the closest answer that we’ll get.
I said that the movie is semi-engrossing. Hollywoodland intersplices the stories of Reeves’ life/career and Simo’s murder investigation. Screen time is divided pretty equally between Affleck and Brody. The movie tends to drag a little, however, when it veers into Simo’s personal life. It was a smart move to see through Simo’s son the effect that Superman’s suicide had on young viewers, but that plot detail got lost as we waded through Simo’s bad relationship with his ex-wife, his affair with his secretary, his attempt to stop smoking, his lazy work habits, his scar, a case he’s currently working on. Two points here reminded me of L.A. Confidential. First, the scar. In L.A. Confidential, Bud White (Russell Crowe) tells Lynn (Kim Basinger) about the night he watched his father brutalize and kill White’s mother. It’s a staggering moment, revealing everything we need to know about White’s character — and we care about him in the process. Contrast that with Simo telling his secretary about his scar. It’s a throwaway moment with little impact, no character, no heart. Granted, I was a little bored with his character at this point, so I could have missed the revelatory moment. The second L.A. Confidential comparison is when Simo finds out that he is inadvertently responsible for an innocent person’s death, reminiscent of when Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) comes to terms with the man he is and the man he wants to be, brought about by his inadvertent culpability in the murder of a wannabe actor. Vincennes moment is introspective and brief before he decides to do the right thing. In contrast, Simo’s actions are drawn-out and cliched, as we watch him grow grizzled with drink and endless cigarettes, leaving me with the feeling of “yeah, I get the message, now get on with the story.”
Because the story, of course, is with Ben Affleck’s George Reeves. Affleck commands the screen when he is on it, melding into Reeves’ charisma, charm, and sexiness. (For those of us who have never been Affleck fans, this comes as quite a surprise.) His winking at the camera as Superman was so perfect, it could have been a CGI of Reeves. In the final scenes, when we are shown a video of Reeves auditioning to be a wrestler, the sadness and desperation of the man trapped in his own steel are palpable.
Affleck’s career seems, at times, to be on a George Reeves-like trajectory as he is often overshadowed by the people he’s affiliated with: Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner. It remains to be seen whether he will be overshadowed again, this time by Adrien Brody. (It was gratifying to see, though, that he was named Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.) And while I admire Brody and believe that he is a fine actor, anyone could have played the role of Louis Simo. The bigger-than-life and yet sad-visaged George Reeves could only have been played by Ben Affleck.
