Hollywoodland (2006)

September 8, 2006, release date

Directed by Allen Coulter

Screenplay by Paul Bernbaum

Music by Marcelo Zarvos

Edited by Michael Berenbaum

Cinematography by Jonathan Freeman

Adrien Brody as Louis Simo

Diane Lane as Toni Mannix

Ben Affleck as George Reeves

Bob Hoskins as Eddie Mannix

Robin Tunney as Leonore Lemmon

Kathleen Robertson as Carol Van Ronkel

Lois Smith as Helen Bessolo

Larry Cedar as Chester Sinclair

Caroline Dhavernas as Kit Holliday

Kevin Hare as Robert Condon

Molly Parker as Laurie Simo

Zach Mills as Evan Simo

Neil Crone as Chuck

Seamus Dever as Phillip

Gareth Williams as Del

Dash Mihok as Detective Sergeant Jack Paterson

Veronica Watt as Rita Hayworth

Joe Spano as Howard Strickling

Jeffrey DeMunn as Art Weissman

Produced by Focus Features, Miramax Films, Back Lot Pictures, TJ Film Productions

Distributed by Universal Studios (United States), Buena Vista International (international distribution)

DVD distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment

It is June 16, 1959. Hollywoodland’s opening music, with its persistent beat, sets up a feeling of tension from the start. The camera takes viewers on a fly-in to the opening scene, where the police are investigating George Reeves’s death. The viewers and the camera start in the clouds, and it is hard to tell if the clouds are storm clouds or they are dark because of the fly-in to a night scene. In either case, the technique makes viewers identify almost immediately with George Reeves, with Superman, with the superhero who could fly.

The film cuts from George Reeves’s nighttime death scene to daytime and to a man, Mr. Sinclair, who is looking for Louis Simo’s detective services. He’s dismayed to find Simo’s office now located in a seedy motel. Louis Simo has come down in the world. He was fired from the detective agency where he used to work. He’s separated from his wife. (Or are they divorced? That’s never made entirely clear.) And Mr. Sinclair interrupts him and his assistant having sex inside “the office” on a bright sunny afternoon.

Right away, Hollywoodland sets up the parallel stories of George Reeves, the actor who never got the parts he wanted, and of Louis Simo, the average guy who wants to live the life of a hard-boiled detective like the ones in the movies. I must confess I didn’t notice all the parallels until I listened to the DVD commentary by the director Allen Coulter. Coulter points out what he calls the major theme: Louis Simo and George Reeves both want to be a player in life and neither one can accept what life has thrown in their way, and so they miss their opportunities.

Hollywoodland is a great story. I was completely absorbed in it when I saw the film in the theater, and I felt the same way about it watching it on DVD. It was great to hear the director’s commentary because the film has many layers. After seeing it four times (including listening to Coulter’s commentary), the film seems to have more and more to offer, which is something I appreciate in a film, in any story.

(This blog post about Hollywoodland contains spoilers.)

The more Simo delves into the circumstances surrounding Reeves’s death, the more he is convinced that the Los Angeles police have it wrong: It’s not a suicide but a murder. He creates a lot of trouble for himself by asking questions and taking Helen Bessolo’s money. Bessolo is Reeves’s mother, and she has hired Simo to probe more deeply because she is convinced that her son would not commit suicide.

At first, Simo’s investigations are like a game to him. He does not care about anyone else or the effect he has on other people. He continues to take Sinclair’s money, even though there is no basis for Sinclair’s suspicions about his wife having an affair. Simo needs the money, and he strings Sinclair along partly because Sinclair insists that his wife is cheating on him. Sinclair ends up killing his wife because no one is checking on Mr. Sinclair, even though his wife warned Simo about him. Simo is indirectly responsible, and he knows it. The death of Mrs. Sinclair makes Simo begin to realize how his actions have consequences.

Simo’s investigation into Reeves’s death is also like a game to him at first. The film intercuts between the investigation and the details of Reeves’s life. George Reeves is a kept man. His mistress, Toni Mannix, is wealthy and buys him everything that he needs, including a house, gifts, and a gun to protect himself. He accepts the role of Superman partly because his agent, Art Weissman, insists that he should have his own money, but he hates every minute of playing the superhero. When Weissman asks Reeves: “What do you want from life?,” Reeves tells him, “Oh, I don’t know. I’d settle for Clark Gable’s career.” He has more grandiose ideas than the role of Superman.

A turning point comes for Simo when he goes to Reeves’s house, now a crime scene, to try to imagine Reeves’s last actions. The film intercuts between the past and the present: Reeves’s last night alive and Simo imagining the events. At one point, Reeves turns directly toward the camera, almost as if he knows that Simo is in his home and that they are now there together. I think Simo begins to identify with Reeves and the circumstances of his life more closely.

Another turning point comes for Simo when he watches a home movie of Reeves given to him by Art Weissman. Weissman originally filmed it with the intention of getting Reeves a spot on a wrestling show, but it’s clear from the home movie that Reeves is not in good physical condition. Simo also watches a home movie of himself with his wife and son, and this home movie is a direct contrast with the one about Reeves. It’s clear that Simo and his wife were once in love and that they were happy. And it seems to me that Simo begins to realize that he had lost something very valuable when his marriage broke apart.

I interpreted the ending, when Simo shows up outside the home he once shared with his wife and son, as being very optimistic. Simo is wearing a suit for the first time. His wife smiles at the camera, at Simo, from just inside the front screen door and then gets their son Evan. Evan comes out the door and starts toward the camera, toward his father.

But Hollywoodland is a neo-noir: The ending is left open to interpretation, and life could go either way for Louis Simo. But the shift in Simo’s level of compassion for George Reeves and for the people in his own life convinced me that things would work out. The future appears a lot more hopeful for Louis Simo than it did for George Reeves.