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Death of Superman
HOLLYWOODLAND
Directed by Allen Coulter
Certificate 15
HOLLYWOODLAND is a clever bio-pic which avoids the usual problems with this genre of film. It is not overly sentimental, nor does it rely on the viewer being interested in the real story behind the famous face on screen.
Not that George Reeves was that well-known. The actor’s life as a TV star playing Superman, is a moralistic lesson in the quest to fulfil ambition – and how once you get what you want, it may not be all you thought it would be. George Reeves was unable to understand that being a children’s TV hero was as good as it gets – and it ruined him.
The story of the death of Reeves runs likes a gumshoe detective tale and although slightly clichéd in parts, it has enough going for it to make it a fine semi-biographical film with fictitious tricks thrown in to keep the viewer interested.
Director Allen Coutler has created a mystery from the wreckage of his life, bringing in a fictional character called Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) to unravel the last moments of the tragic actor. Found with a gunshot wound to his head, the police think it’s a straightforward case of suicide. Simo – employed by the deceased’s mother – thinks otherwise.
We learn about the demise of Reeves from Reeves himself (played by Ben Affleck), and then in a parallel tale, an investigation into his death by Simo. This film is also about the battle in the 1950s between TV and the Silver Screen as our prime means of visual entertainment.
Reeves had been in Gone With The Wind – but it was in a TV serial that his name became well known. Like Buster Crabbe in the Flash Gordon series, it wasn’t until he was a regular on the TV schedule that he started getting pestered in the streets. Reeves blamed his success as Superman for him then being typecast, and unable to get back into feature films.
Prime suspect Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins’ grim movie mogul and friend of the Mob) may have had something to do with it, as Reeves has relied on his wife Toni Mannix to supply him with the things any aspiring Hollywood star needs – the condominium with swimming pool and cocktail cabinet, access to the right people and late night parties followed by early morning rows.
The fact the viewer is kept guessing throughout the film means this works as a straightforward murder mystery, as well as a sad take on dreams that eventually turn out to be empty.
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