Noir is in, right now, judging from this and this week's Black Dahlia. Sadly, that may be an unfortunate thing.
(And yes, if you haven't seen it yet, consider yourself warned… I'll probably talk about the ending. That makes this the only SPOILER ALERT you're going to get.)
Hollywoodland is one of those movies that I look at and think "the whole was definitely less than the sum of its parts." It's got a great cast with Adrian Brody, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins taking their respective noirish roles of noble PI, dangerous monied dame and older, mob-type husband.
And Ben Affleck really steps up this time as the "victim" in this sad little tale. On the heels of my "kiss of death" post last week came the news that he'd received the Venice Film Festival Best Actor award. And I think it's a well-deserved award. This may be the most interesting and was certainly the most believable performance I've seen from Affleck.
(I found one scene particularly interesting. One of the preview articles I read about the movie talked about how Affleck found that he could relate to Reeve's problems, as he's struggled recently with "the comeback" road. In the movie, he's shown at a preview screening for From Here to Eternity. As soon as the scene starts, hecklers in the audience starting calling out lines from the Superman series and, after a few moments of this, we see one of the studio suits that have been watching the preview make a cutting motion. So we know that George's big break is about to end up on the cutting room floor. What made this so interesting to me was the discussion I heard on KROQ on the movie's opening weekend when the guy from Moviefone, during his review of the movie, said that he kept getting distracted every time Affleck was onscreen, and couldn't separate him from his off screen tabloid life. Perhaps Ben's got even more reason to relate to Reeves than ever.)
But good performances aren't everything, and I found myself wanting more from the movie as it progressed. Part of the problem was directorial. There were scenes that didn't ring true and moments that simply looked stage for ultimate noir effect (one moment when Brody's sitting by his bed as the phone rings sticks in my mind as particularly ham-handed). Part of it is structural… his flashback reenactments of the "crime" were distracting and, the first time through, confusing. (I didn't immediately get that he was imagining the crime and wondered why we were being shown what really happened a third of the way into the mystery.)
Another, and more damning problem, is I get the feeling the story was shoehorned into that film noir mode… perhaps because it wasn't terribly interesting without it. I mean, the story of an out of work actor shooting himself because he's depressed about his failed career hardly strikes me as an easy sell. But add in a little adultery and possible murder and, well, you've got yourself a story, don't you?
I'll admit, I have no idea how much of this movie is based on "what really happened" (though, if this site is to be trusted, the framework is certainly there). But even if the facts are there, the presentation simply works too hard at it for me. And if you're ultimately going to resolve the story that he DID kill himself, then why are you taking me down the noir path in the first place? It's not dark and mysterious… simply sad and tragic.
And then there's the ending. Don't get me wrong… I expect my noir to end badly. Hell, I'd be pissed if you try to feed me a happy ending here. But the message we get here, as Brody's character pulls up to his estranged wife's house, seen wearing a suit and tie for the first time in the movie is:
(BTW… Does that make this the dark side of It's a Wonderful Life?)
(And yes, if you haven't seen it yet, consider yourself warned… I'll probably talk about the ending. That makes this the only SPOILER ALERT you're going to get.)
Hollywoodland is one of those movies that I look at and think "the whole was definitely less than the sum of its parts." It's got a great cast with Adrian Brody, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins taking their respective noirish roles of noble PI, dangerous monied dame and older, mob-type husband.
And Ben Affleck really steps up this time as the "victim" in this sad little tale. On the heels of my "kiss of death" post last week came the news that he'd received the Venice Film Festival Best Actor award. And I think it's a well-deserved award. This may be the most interesting and was certainly the most believable performance I've seen from Affleck.
(I found one scene particularly interesting. One of the preview articles I read about the movie talked about how Affleck found that he could relate to Reeve's problems, as he's struggled recently with "the comeback" road. In the movie, he's shown at a preview screening for From Here to Eternity. As soon as the scene starts, hecklers in the audience starting calling out lines from the Superman series and, after a few moments of this, we see one of the studio suits that have been watching the preview make a cutting motion. So we know that George's big break is about to end up on the cutting room floor. What made this so interesting to me was the discussion I heard on KROQ on the movie's opening weekend when the guy from Moviefone, during his review of the movie, said that he kept getting distracted every time Affleck was onscreen, and couldn't separate him from his off screen tabloid life. Perhaps Ben's got even more reason to relate to Reeves than ever.)
But good performances aren't everything, and I found myself wanting more from the movie as it progressed. Part of the problem was directorial. There were scenes that didn't ring true and moments that simply looked stage for ultimate noir effect (one moment when Brody's sitting by his bed as the phone rings sticks in my mind as particularly ham-handed). Part of it is structural… his flashback reenactments of the "crime" were distracting and, the first time through, confusing. (I didn't immediately get that he was imagining the crime and wondered why we were being shown what really happened a third of the way into the mystery.)
Another, and more damning problem, is I get the feeling the story was shoehorned into that film noir mode… perhaps because it wasn't terribly interesting without it. I mean, the story of an out of work actor shooting himself because he's depressed about his failed career hardly strikes me as an easy sell. But add in a little adultery and possible murder and, well, you've got yourself a story, don't you?
I'll admit, I have no idea how much of this movie is based on "what really happened" (though, if this site is to be trusted, the framework is certainly there). But even if the facts are there, the presentation simply works too hard at it for me. And if you're ultimately going to resolve the story that he DID kill himself, then why are you taking me down the noir path in the first place? It's not dark and mysterious… simply sad and tragic.
And then there's the ending. Don't get me wrong… I expect my noir to end badly. Hell, I'd be pissed if you try to feed me a happy ending here. But the message we get here, as Brody's character pulls up to his estranged wife's house, seen wearing a suit and tie for the first time in the movie is:
Superman killed himselfOk, I'm expecting dark at the end of my noir. I'm not looking for soul-killing.
There are no heroes (be they men of steel or noble PIs)
Give up your illusions and conform
(BTW… Does that make this the dark side of It's a Wonderful Life?)
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