Is it a murder? Is it a...

by LES EVERETT

'HOLLYWOODLAND' takes a look at the mysterious death in 1959 of actor George Reeves who played the first TV Superman.

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Adrien Brody (as PI Louis Simo) at work in 'Hollywoodland'.

Allen Coulter's film looks wonderful, has great cars and hats and the performances, particularly of Adrien Brody (as PI Louis Simo) and Ben Afflick as Reeves, are strong.

Reeves died of gunshot wound and somehow this film, perhaps in its attempts to line up a number of possibilities in an unsolved mystery, ends up chasing its tail.

Like it or not - let's face we do like it - most good crime fiction involves resolution. Without a he or she who dunnit a story needs very strong writing and that's essentially where 'Hollywoodland' fell down.

That said the movie has its moments - lots of them - and you might walk away with a hankering for an episode or two of 'Superman' and happy you don't live in the smoke-filled 1950s.

27 March 2007

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