Adrien Brody is private eye Louis Simo in Hollywoodland.
Herald rating: * * *
Verdict: Drama about the death of early telly Superman overdoes it on the whodunnit.
The title says something about the flaws in this mildly intriguing movie-biz movie about the tragic end of the first small-screen Superman.
Just as they shortened the name of the place to "Hollywood" about the time this 1950s film is set, the movie would also have benefited from
excising a syllable or two.
While it's based on a real-life story diverting enough to anyone with a passing interest in the old Tinseltown underbelly explored by the likes of Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, or the works of James Ellroy, its haphazard pace and structure means it stretches on for far too long.
It does have some stirring performances - especially a surprisingly good one from Affleck as early television Superman George Reeves, whose inability to stop a speeding bullet in real life frames this as a mystery whodunnit.
The real Reeves' death was ruled a suicide - supposedly from his disappointment at finding himself washed-up, middle-aged and forever typecast as the Man of Steel - despite questions raised by other bullet holes in the bedroom where his body was found.
As well as telling of Reeves' short, sharp career and affair with Toni Mannix (Lane) the wife of MGM studio boss Edgar Mannix, Hollywoodland tacks on a fictional tale of private eye Louis Simo (Brody) attempting to reopen the case and pin it on Mr Mannix while dealing with his own demons resulting from his failed marriage and a son, who, like many an impressionable American youngster of his day, has taken the self-inflicted death of Superman very badly.
The trouble is the Simo whodunnit sideshow starts acting like kryptonite on the rise and fall of Superman story and every time Brody's hangdog expression arrives on screen the film crashes back to earth.
That's a pity, especially as the portrait of Reeves and how he stayed square-jawed and self-deprecating through his many indignities - which ranged from being a kept man by Mrs Mannix to coming to grief doing super-stunts to dealing with a young fan with a novel way of testing his superhero worship - comes with enough emotional resonance to carry what could have been a shorter, smarter film.
While it not be in the same production design league as The Aviator, it delivers an atmospheric portrait of that period in Tinseltown, post the golden age but with studios still wielding a power that is ebbing with the advent of television. Hollywoodland would seem to get the details and most of the performances right. It's just cluttered by efforts to tell how this Superman might have died when it's already succeeding in making us care about how he lived.
Cast: Ben Affleck, Adrien Brody, Diane Lane
Director: Allen Coulter
Rating: M (violence, offensive language, sex scenes)
Running time: 127 mins
Screening: Village, Berkeley cinemas
