Hollywoodland (2006)

It probably doesn’t speak volumes for this film that when Ben Affleck was cast as Batman a few years back, no one seemed to mention the fact that he had in fact, previously donned a superhero cape before, in the form of the very caped crime fighter he was facing up against in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Which is a shame, because Affleck is on fine form as George Reeves, Hollywood superstar who is found dead in his room at the films’ opening, seemingly an open and shut case of suicide. The film is a fictionalised account of the real life events surrounding Reeves’ death, and Hollywoodland plays out over two different time frames; one following Reeves in the lead up to his death, and the other set in the present day post Reeves death as Adrian Brody’s private investigator Louis Simo investigates the supposed suicide. The film is well paced and well made, with good performances from its cast, especially Affleck and Brody (the former who had come of the back of a rotten run of films) but it suffers from offering a range of possible murder suspects that are generally irritating, apart from Bob Hoskin’s Eddie Mannix who despite not being at his finest, is easily the most interesting of the ne’er-do-wells. Unfortunately for Hollywoodland, the film that it most reminds you of is L.A Confidential (1997) which would be more of an unfair comparison if the film didn’t attempt to offer a similar tone to Curtis Hanson’s masterpiece. L.A Confidential this is not, but that is not to say that there’s not much to enjoy in Hollywoodland. 6.7/10