Hollywood Ending (2002) * * *

 

Directed by:  Woody Allen

 

Starring:  Woody Allen, Tea Leoni, Mark Rydell, Treat Williams, George Hamilton, Tiffani Thiessen, Debra Messing, Jodie Markell, Mark Webber

 

Val Waxman (Allen) is a movie director assumed to be long past his prime.    He needs a hit desperately to keep working, so his producer ex-wife Ellie (Leoni) finds a modestly budgeted commercial project for him to direct.    Val is not the studio head's (Williams) first, second, or even fifth choice to direct the movie, but he is engaged to Ellie and wants to please her.    There is soon a twist, which is most always the case in a Woody Allen film.    Val is soon stricken with psychosomatic blindness.    It's tough to direct a movie you can't see.  Val, knowing this is his last shot, fakes his way through a hectic set with executives, gossip columnists, and a Japanese cameraman who can't speak English and has no clue what Val's "vision" for the film is, all lurking around. 

 

Hollywood Ending is not a Woody Allen film with deep meaning or deep insights.    It is mostly fun and satirically works its way through some Hollywood targets.    Allen has a lot of material to work with.    Is the movie significant with a greater view into a director's soul?    No.  It is a story of an aging director trying to make a film with a serious handicap.   There is a love angle.  Val is still in love with Ellie, who is exasperated by her kvetching ex-husband but may still have feelings for him.   Hollywood Ending was made in a period of Woody Allen films in which his leading lady was about thirty years younger than him and we somehow buy the romances anyway.     Like Helen Hunt in Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Tracey Ullman in Small Time Crooks, Tea Leoni is plucky and not a pushover, but ultimately has a sweet spot for Allen and his myriad insecurities.

 

With help of Val's eternally optimistic agent Al (Rydell-a fine movie director in his own right) and a helpful translator, Val is able to almost go through work each day with his secret undetected.    No one seems to find it odd that Val doesn't look people in the eye and is led around by Al, the translator, or Ellie herself eventually like well...a blind man.     The dailies are never shown to us, but others who manage to see them are aghast.    Allen is wise not to belabor this point by showing us the terrible finished product, which would cause the movie to lapse into slapstick.     Leave that stuff to Ed Wood.    

 

I've never made it a secret that Woody Allen is my favorite director and screenwriter.    I've never witnessed an artist move so comfortably between genres and create such a vast array of unique entertainments.     Allen makes you feel, laugh, and think.     He has a knack for finding a germ of an idea and expanding it to its fullest comic possibilities.     A lesser director would have shown Allen tripping over things and bumping into walls.     A lesser writer would have taken the easy way out.    Allen prefers to play the situation intelligently, which makes it all the more satisfying.