Holy Crap, Affleck Can Act!

Moses, my sister Bet, and myself all got together this afternoon so we could take in a movie. I got put in charge of picking what we saw, so I decided upon Hollywoodland. We had to drive all the way up to Lexington to see it, but since we had to go up there to run some errands anyway, that was no big deal.

Unfortunately, our opinions of the movie were decidedly mixed. Moses fell asleep two or three times, Bet didn't like it (claiming that she had no clue what was going on), and I thought it was great.

The movie centers around a private investigator (played by Adrien Brody) following a trail of clues that hint actor George Reeves was murdered, not a victim of suicide as claimed. In a subplot running concurrently, we follow Reeves (played by Ben Affleck) through flashbacks on his road to stardom as Superman and his eventual death, along with his affair with Toni Mannix (played by Diane Lane), the wife of powerful movie studio executive Eddie Mannix (played by Bob Hoskins).

Personally, I found the movie to be a very intriguing, very engrossing modern film noir. Each performance is exemplary (especially Affleck, believe it or not), and Allen Coulter's direction is sound. Though the movie relies almost too heavily on flashbacks and seemingly runs a wee bit too long despite clocking in at only two hours, six minutes, Hollywoodland is an interesting look into the seedy underbelly of Hollywood's golden days. My final verdict: four stars and a big thumbs up. Go check it out, if it's playing around you.