Hollywoodland

Wednesday August 9, 7:00pm Pacific Place Cinemas

"An actor can’t always act. Sometimes he has to earn a living."

What really happened to actor George Reeves has been the source of myth and speculation since 1959 when his death was ruled a suicide. Allen Coulter's directorial debut Hollywoodland, explores a mystery that began with the bullet TV’s Superman couldn’t stop. Meticulous recreations of the television show and the boozy, schmoozy Hollywood nightclub life of the fifties are highlights in this carefully stylized, neo-noir, "inspired by a true story", nonsense. The disintegrating career of Reeves (Ben Affleck) is shown in flashback, while the post-mortem investigation by detective Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), hired by Reeves mother, seeks to uncover the truth. The two stories converge in what ultimately becomes the unsatisfying and still unresolved conclusion. Affleck, playing the washed-up, over-the-hill actor, does have one fantastic scene when Reeves is confronted with frightening reality at an otherwise tedious public appearance, but the picture belongs to Brody’s ragged, dissolute, on the edge gumshoe.