Bright lights, big city
Watched Hollywoodland this week. A nice period piece with interesting performances by Ben Affleck, Adrien Brody, Bob Hoskins, and Diane Lane.
Based on actual events, the movie tells the story of George Reeves' death. (Reeves was the television actor who portrayed Superman in the 1950s television series.) The movie is fairly accurate in its depiction of real-life events and relationships.
Reeves (played well by Affleck) is a small-time actor looking for work. He meets and strikes up an affair with Toni Mannix (a beautiful and tragic Lane), wife of Ed Mannix (Hoskins), a VP at MGM. Toni turns George into her "kept man," buying him a house, expensive gifts, etc. Reeves lands the part of Superman, but he takes it only because he wants some money of his own. (He feels that the series will never get picked up, and that no one will ever see it.) What he soon discovers, however, is that he has been pigeon-holed into the small-screen character, and that attempts to secure other work, particularly in film, are futile. A depressed Reeves eventually breaks it off with Mannix, taking up with Lenore Lemmon. Shortly thereafter, Reeves is discovered in his bedroom, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Louis Simo (Brody) is an invented character, a private investigator hired by Reeves' estranged mother to look into his death. Simo is dealing with his own frustrations - separation from his wife, and ailing relationship with his son, problems with his mistress, moral justification for his line of work, and money trouble. Set against the backdrop of his query into the Reeves case, these issues sharpen and lead to a determination for him to discover what actually happened to a fellow "Superman."
Performances were uniformly solid, with Affleck deftly capturing Reeves' descent into hopelessness. Lane is gorgeous and giddy as a woman who discovers a young lover, and harrowed and haunted as a woman spurned and bereaved (or guilty?). Hoskins does well, too, as the understanding (and potentially violent) husband in an open marriage. Brody is the true centerpiece of the film, however, drawing all of the material together and reflecting it back at the viewer through the lens of his current troubles.
The feel of the film is authentic. I loved the sets, props, and costumes, with Lane in particular serving as a showcase for such. Production values were high on this film.
What I enjoyed most about this movie, though, was that the ending was left ambiguous. The filmmakers do not give us an answer about how they think Reeves met his end. (Sifting through the details of Reeves' life, Simo imagines several different scenarios for the star's demise.) Rather, they let us see the myriad of possibilities, understanding that what happened on that June night in 1959 will most likely remain one of Hollywood's unsolved mysteries.
Based on actual events, the movie tells the story of George Reeves' death. (Reeves was the television actor who portrayed Superman in the 1950s television series.) The movie is fairly accurate in its depiction of real-life events and relationships.
Reeves (played well by Affleck) is a small-time actor looking for work. He meets and strikes up an affair with Toni Mannix (a beautiful and tragic Lane), wife of Ed Mannix (Hoskins), a VP at MGM. Toni turns George into her "kept man," buying him a house, expensive gifts, etc. Reeves lands the part of Superman, but he takes it only because he wants some money of his own. (He feels that the series will never get picked up, and that no one will ever see it.) What he soon discovers, however, is that he has been pigeon-holed into the small-screen character, and that attempts to secure other work, particularly in film, are futile. A depressed Reeves eventually breaks it off with Mannix, taking up with Lenore Lemmon. Shortly thereafter, Reeves is discovered in his bedroom, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Louis Simo (Brody) is an invented character, a private investigator hired by Reeves' estranged mother to look into his death. Simo is dealing with his own frustrations - separation from his wife, and ailing relationship with his son, problems with his mistress, moral justification for his line of work, and money trouble. Set against the backdrop of his query into the Reeves case, these issues sharpen and lead to a determination for him to discover what actually happened to a fellow "Superman."
Performances were uniformly solid, with Affleck deftly capturing Reeves' descent into hopelessness. Lane is gorgeous and giddy as a woman who discovers a young lover, and harrowed and haunted as a woman spurned and bereaved (or guilty?). Hoskins does well, too, as the understanding (and potentially violent) husband in an open marriage. Brody is the true centerpiece of the film, however, drawing all of the material together and reflecting it back at the viewer through the lens of his current troubles.
The feel of the film is authentic. I loved the sets, props, and costumes, with Lane in particular serving as a showcase for such. Production values were high on this film.
What I enjoyed most about this movie, though, was that the ending was left ambiguous. The filmmakers do not give us an answer about how they think Reeves met his end. (Sifting through the details of Reeves' life, Simo imagines several different scenarios for the star's demise.) Rather, they let us see the myriad of possibilities, understanding that what happened on that June night in 1959 will most likely remain one of Hollywood's unsolved mysteries.
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