Hollywoodland (2006)

Fame can look like the fulfillment of every dream, but behind the bright lights, the story is often far lonelier. Allen Coulter's "Hollywoodland" is a fact-based mystery set in 1959, when the death of George Reeves, star of TV's "Adventures of Superman," cast a shadow over the fading days of Hollywood's golden age. Paul Bernbaum's intriguing script captures the murky atmosphere surrounding Reeves' death, officially ruled a suicide but never fully explained, and explores scenarios suggesting he may have been murdered. By weaving the sad arc of Reeves' career together with the investigation of a down-and-out private detective looking into his death, the film becomes an absorbing look at the parallel lives of people on both sides of the Hollywood dream. Coulter, who built an impressive TV career directing episodes of HBO's "The Sopranos," "Rome" and "Six Feet Under," strikes a satisfying balance between the tragedy of the Reeves case and the classic elements of the detective genre. Adrien Brody does fine work as private eye Louis Simo, a fictional composite who leads us into the desperate longings of Reeves' final months. In an acclaimed performance that won him the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival, Ben Affleck plays Reeves in moody flashbacks, trapped between Superman fame and financial dependence on his older lover, Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), the somewhat predatory wife of powerful MGM executive and studio "fixer" Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), whose rumored mob ties point toward foul play as Simo digs deeper. Reeves' later fiancée, Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney), may also have had a hand in his death, and as Simo's own personal life falls apart, his sympathy for Reeves takes on new meaning. By presenting its mystery as a series of plausible possibilities, the film stands out as a refreshingly compassionate look at its characters' fates. Flaws and all, they're likable dreamers in a town where dreams don't always come true.