Hollywoodland - 5

Like The Black Dahlia, which came out around the same time, this film is a 50's crime drama dealing with a historical fact: the suicide/murder of George Reeves. It then uses a parallel story structure to show the possible reasons for Reeves (Ben Affleck) suicide/murder, with a private investigator, Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), who is hired to try to discover if it was murder. The film is a little long, but it moves well between the two stories and in the end connects them by showing the pressures people face because of the expectations that they and others place on them. The film highlights the relationship between Reeves and his lover, Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), as well as Simo to his estranged wife and son. Good performances, but only a mediocre story.