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'Hollywoodland': Rumors more powerful than a locomotive

Truth, justice and the American way? How about adultery, booze and suspected homicide instead. "Hollywoodland," a film bio-cum-noir about the actor made famous as TV's Superman, takes an American icon and pokes at his sad, flabby alter ego.

Rumors have long circulated about the death of George Reeves, the actor known throughout the '50s as the Last Son of Krypton. Police quickly ruled it a suicide, but some devotees of Hollywood scandals (the folks counting the days until "The Black Dahlia" opens Sept. 15) harbor theories of jealous murder and high-powered cover-up. "Hollywoodland" makes their ideas look pretty plausible.

Focus Features 'Hollywoodland' 3 out of 5 stars The verdict: Tinseltown's take on the mysterious death of 'Superman' actor George Reeves. Director: Allen Coulter Starring: Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins, Kathleen Robertson Run time: 126 minutes Release date: Sept. 8, 2006 Rating: R for language, some violence and sexual content. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Hollywoodland'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

It gets there left-handedly, though, as the man who builds the case doesn't believe in it himself. Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), a two-bit private eye who works out of a motel room and sleeps with his secretary, pounces on Reeves' death because there's a buck to be made.

The actor's grieving mother can't believe he killed himself, and Simo convinces her that — if she'll pay his retainer — he can stir up enough hubbub in the press that the city will be forced to reopen the case. Brody is entertainingly sleazy, as much PR huckster as detective. Along the way, though, Simo finds enough inconsistency in the evidence and enough opposition to his crusade that he decides he's stumbled across the truth.

Simo's hunt is only half the tale. In alternating scenes, we watch the actor's rise and fall firsthand. As played by Ben Affleck, Reeves was a big galoot with a touch of urbanity and just enough ambition to half-succeed in showbiz. He had a part in "Gone With the Wind," but nobody remembers him in it. After that, he played dozens of nobodies and a low-rent Sir Galahad.

He's not above hitting on a woman just because he hopes she can introduce him to the right people. One night in a swanky joint, Reeves accidentally overshoots his mark: He falls into bed with the wife of a studio bigwig, and begins an affair that will define the rest of his life.

In real life, Diane Lane is only seven years older than Affleck. But as Toni Mannix she is an archetypal Older Woman, one for whom genuine affection is wrapped up with a feeling of having bought Reeves' love — she sets him up in a suburban house — and an undercurrent of paranoia that he'll toss her aside for a young girl once he's on his feet. (She's not wrong.) Mannix's odd relationship with her husband (Bob Hoskins) — the pair double-date in public, her with Reeves and him with his mistress — makes the whole situation seem not so much sordid as the product of L.A.'s skewed reality.

Then there's Superman. Reeves has more serious parts in mind for himself, and in a funny scene he tries to be so inappropriate in the audition that the producers will throw him out. But he gets the part, and can't afford not to take it. We see his attitude evolve, from hoping the show is cancelled to ambivalent pride when it succeeds. By the time he realizes he's forever typecast, there's little for Reeves to do.

Which leaves us with a depressed man, a couple of jealous lovers, and peripheral figures with competing interests. It's ample material for a murder mystery, and the filmmakers provide a few hypothetical-flashbacks to suggest the leading theories. In the end they hint at the one they believe; but they know enough about the allure of Hollywood legends not to claim the case is closed.