- Film Review
- Reviewed By Damon Wise
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3 out of 5
Though it has all the hallmarks of a film noir - a gumshoe, a mysterious death and not one but two femmes fatales - Hollywoodland doesn't quite fit the genre bill. Instead, it's more a poignant love letter to the glory days of Tinseltown, personified by George Reeves (Ben Affleck), a struggling bit-part player who found fame in the 1950s as TV's Superman. The film takes liberties with the facts of Reeves's life, starting with his apparent suicide in 1959 and telling his story in flashback through the eyes of private eye Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), who is hired by Reeves's mother to look into her son's death. Simo uncovers three possible alternatives, all hinged on Reeves's involvement with a rich, powerful and married woman (Diane Lane). Despite the convincingly dark, smoky atmosphere to Simo's investigation, Hollywoodland works better when it's evoking Reeves's heyday - a cosmetically genteel world of zoot suits and jazz bands, in which the studio system protected its investments at any price.
Plot Summary
Mystery thriller based on a true story, starring Adrien Brody, Diane Lane and Ben Affleck. When TV's Superman George Reeves is found dead from a single gunshot wound at his Hollywood Hills home in 1959, his millions of fans go into mourning. The Los Angeles Police Department rules that his death was suicide, but Reeves's grieving mother will have none of it and hires a private detective to investigate further.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Louis Simo
- Adrien Brody
- Toni Mannix
- Diane Lane
- George Reeves
- Ben Affleck
- Edgar Mannix
- Bob Hoskins
- Helen Bessolo
- Lois Smith
- Leonore Lemmon
- Robin Tunney
- Laurie Simo
- Molly Parker
- Chester Sinclair
- Larry Cedar
- Art Weissman
- Jeffrey DeMunn
- Kit Holliday
- Caroline Dhavernas
- Russ Taylor
- Brad William Henke
- Howard Strickling
- Joe Spano
Crew
- Director
- Allen Coulter
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