Hollywoodland
Allen Coulter
Adrien Brody/Diane Lane/Ben Affleck/Bob Hoskins/126minutes
Hollywood in the 1950s was a town filled with glamour and glitter. Not surprisingly, there was a dark side lurking just beneath.
The deeper private detective Louis Simo (Brody) digs into the death of TV’s Superman George Reeves (Affleck), the more dirt he uncovers and more questions are raised over whether it was suicide or murder.
The movie also tracks Simo’s journey of redemption, which is played out in contrast to the downward slide of Reeves.
Affleck picked up the best actor award unexpectedly at last year’s Venice Film Festival. In fact, he was so sure he did not stand a chance that he left the festival before the awards were announced.
He took a gamble, portraying a charming, handsome actor who has to come to terms with the fact that he would never make it in the movies. But it was Brody and the always reliable Lane, as Reeves’ sugar mummy, who left deeper impressions.
The DVD extras include deleted scenes which are, for a change, complete scenes instead of snippets or out-takes.The featurettes were refreshingly non-gushy, though there was potential for greater depth in the coverage of old Hollywood. It would also have been nice to have a clip or two from Reeves’ Superman series.
(ST)