Movie Review of Hollywoodland

The stars a talented cast, led by Ben Affleck and Diane Lane. Affleck stars as Reeves and Lane is Toni Mannix, the wife of MGM studio executive Eddie Mannix. Adrien Brody plays private detective Louis Simo who is hired by Reeves' mother to investigate his death. The actors are splendid in their roles. Probably the best role yet for Affleck, he managed to bring the emotions of Reeves to life, how he was tormented by his role as Superman and his struggles to be taken seriously as an actor. I actually think it is Affleck who makes the movie by his portrayal. Lane is also good as his lover. On the other hand, I am not to sure about Brody's role though. I think at times he was too brooding for the role. While the others were able to show emotions and feelings for their characters, it was really hard to understand exactly where or what Brody was trying to do with his character.

The storyline is at times, a little hard to keep track of. There was actually two different time periods going on. One was Reeves and his life after he met up with Mannix and Simo's investigation into the murder. It was the investigation though that I thought was the hardest to follow. The ideal of the storyline was to present different views on how Reeve's death occurred. There was about three different ideas about his death. In the end, I was pretty confused on what the movie wanted the audience to believe. I mean either he was killed or he shot himself. The movie never really made a case for either way. I thought the best parts of the movie was with Affleck and Lane. Those were the easiest ones to follow because one could feel for Reeves. The parts with Brody investigating, those were the hardest ones to follow I thought.

In the end, the movie was alright but nothing I would have went wild for. About half the movie I really liked but there was more of it, I really did not care for. It was actually Affleck and Lane who kept me into the movie. Overall, it was one of those movies one would watch when they did not have anything else to watch.

is based on George Reeves' mysterious death in 1959. George Reeves was of course famous as Superman on the television show "Adventures of Superman" in the 1950's. After becoming despondent over his declining film career after Superman, Reeves was found dead by a single gunshot to the head in his Hollywood Hills home on June 16, 1959. Ever since then, there is a mystery on how he actually died. This is what would be the plot of Hollywoodland.