Hollywoodland (2006)

What would you do if you were a reluctant television icon who could not get work and was a kept man by the wife of a movie executive? Well, with no options and little hope, one option may be to kill yourself. At least, that's the official version of the death of George Reeves, the star of the TV show Superman. A contract actor who peaked at the wrong time during the end of the heralded studio system, Reeves was trapped in the role of Superman. Television was becoming very popular to the average American in the 1950s, but for "real" studio actors, television was equivalent to being banished.


According to the film Hollywoodland, starring Ben Affleck, Diane Lane and Adrien Brody, George Reeves was an actor with a lot of potential and took the job as Superman because he needed the money and didn't think it would be successful. Once he became an idol to thousands of children, he became both successful and eternally trapped. He tried to spread his creative wings by appearing in films like From Here to Eternity, but the audiences wouldn't accept him as anything other than Superman.

The film Hollywoodland actually revolves around a private eye named Louis Simo, played by Adrien Brody. Simo is actually a combination of a group of real life people consolidated into a private investigator hired by Reeves' mother to determine whether George, played convincingly by Affleck, had actually committed suicide. There are various discrepancies within the crime scene and the power of the studios to cover up damaging events was still very strong, so questions still abound today as to the true cause of Reeves' death.

Hollywoodland as a film does a great job of introducing us into the changing times in glamorous Hollywood in the 1950s, giving insight into the restrictions placed on actors and the struggles to get accepted above your perceived artistic value. The film, however, unfolds rather slowly and the end leaves you with just as many questions as we had at the beginning of the story.

The film's deliberate pace is offset by the wonderful performances by Brody, Lane and Affleck. One especially intense scene has Affleck, dressed as Superman and performing in front of a group of children, having to disarm a child who innocently wants to shoot Reeves so the bullets would bounce off his chest.

Uneven in execution, but with excellent performances, Hollywoodland is a mixed bag, but ultimately enjoyable.