Hollywood Ending (May 2/02)

Woody Allen once said that the ideal length for a comedy is around 90 minutes. Given that his latest movie, Hollywood Ending, purports to be a comedy and in fact runs close to 110 minutes, it's easy enough to wonder why he's begun to disobey his own rule.

The film stars Allen as Val, a has-been big-shot director. He used to have a thriving career helming expensive films with big stars, but has been reduced to shooting commercials in Canada. As the movie opens, his ex-wife - who also just happens to be engaged to the head of a big studio - is pitching his services for a new movie that's in need of a director. While the others are wary due to his reputation as a difficult director, she insists this is the perfect material for him. They eventually relent, and Val gets the gig. But just as shooting's about to begin, he's struck down with a case of psychosomatic blindness. Though he's sure that he'll have to bow out of the project, his agent convinces him that he'll be able to continue on (lest he lose the job that could save his career). So, wackiness ensues as Val winds up directing the film blind - armed with the assistance of his agent and a helpful translator.

Hollywood Ending, while not quite as lousy as last year's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, is still fairly mediocre and considering the sort of films Allen used to crank out, it's a little bit curious. Perhaps the strain of making a movie a year has finally gotten to him, or maybe he's just plum run out of good stories to tell - whatever it is, Allen's downward trajectory continues with this film. That's not to say Hollywood Ending is awful; it's still far better than a lot of other movies that have been released thus far this year. It's just that, since it's Woody Allen, you expect so much more from him.

There are a few things worth recommending about the film, though, most notably the performance of Treat Williams. Though he's lately been relegated to the straight-to-video realm, this underrated actor always steals whatever scenes he's given. And here, as the studio head reluctant to work with Val, he's excellent. The other actors are good, particularly Tea Leoni as Val's ex-wife, but Williams' is the real reason to check out Hollywood Ending. There's also the Asian translator who helps Val out - his scenes with Allen provide the film's few laughs - but other than that, nobody really stands out.

But there are certain aspects of the film that feel unfinished somehow. For instance, there's a subplot featuring Val's strained relationship with his punk son. Now that Val's reevaluated his life, he wants to become closer with the kid. This whole storyline, particularly a sequence in which Val goes to the son's house, feels like it should have been left for the deleted scenes section of the eventual DVD (though given Allen's disdain for supplementary material, it's doubtful it ever would have popped up). Likewise, the entire film feels about 30 minutes too long. An unsentimental editor probably should have been hired to judiciously take out unnecessary sequences and trim down the rest.

Hollywood Ending doesn't really offer any good reason for plunking down over $10 when you could just as easily rent something like Manhattan or Annie Hall (and it's cheaper, too).