HOLLYWOODLAND (2006) Superman plummets

I was nine when I discovered that my favorite flying hero had landed on TV, and in the eons since, little on the tube has thrilled me as much. I’m talking of course about Superman - for my generation, the real one, George Reeves. A decade earlier, Reeves' career had taken off when he appeared in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), and over the next few years he played a variety of roles at the major studios, usually to praise from fans and reviewers. But after he returned from WWII service, roles shrank in number and importance, and by 1950 his career was pretty much gone with the wind. Then in 1951, the 37-year old Reeves reluctantly accepted the Man of Steel role in a budget film, SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE PEOPLE (1951) and saw his career soared to great heights of success. The movie spawned the TV series THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (1952-58), which brought Reeves six years of small-screen fame until his shocking death in 1958. Was it suicide or murder? That’s the question posed in HOLLYWOODLAND, starring Adrien Brody as the second-rate dick trying to find out which, and Ben Affleck as George Reeves/Clark Kent/Superman. Affleck doesn't sound anything like Reeves, but decked out in wig, built-up nose and extra poundage, he looks a lot like him in some scenes. The film meanders through several time periods and is often confusing in its editing. But it gets the look and feel of the Fifties right, and the performances are good – especially Diane Lane's as Reeves’ clingy, married girlfriend. Watch for one particularly unnerving scene when Reeves, outfitted as Superman, talks an adoring kid fan out of shooting him with a real gun (based on a true incident). At the movie's end, we still don't know how Reeves really died, but whatever the cause – suicide, murder or kryptonite – his life seems to have started ending the moment he first donned the Superman costume.