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Written by Mandroid3000
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HOLLYWOOD ENDING
*** out of *****
Genres
2002
Written and directed by
Woody Allen
Cast
Woody Allen .... Val Waxman
Téa Leoni .... Ellie
Treat Williams .... Hal Jaeger
George Hamilton .... Ed
Debra Messing .... Lori Fox
Isaac Mizrahi .... Art Director Elio Sebastian
Marian Seldes .... Alexandra
Tiffani Thiessen .... Sharon Bates
Mark Webber .... Tony Waxman/Scumbag X
Mark Rydell .... Al Hack
Val Waxman is a washed-up movie director who, despite having two Academy Awards, has been relegated to making deodorant commercials in Canada. But clearly his downfall has a lot to do with his personality, he’s continuously walking off sets and being fired. He’s stuck in a rut wondering “how did I go from the cutting edge to the buttering edge?” As Woody Allen stars as Val Waxman, you can imagine how this plays out.
But he’s thrown a lifeline by his ex-wife Ellie (Téa Leoni) who thinks he’s just right to direct a gritty New York film she’s producing, The Streets of New York. Everything is against him getting the job, for one thing the head of the studio, Hal Jaeger, is the man Ellie left Val for. And for another thing Val doesn’t have the best reputation. One of the executives Ed (George Hamilton) tells Ellie “Look, I love Val. I love him. But with all due respect... he's a raving, incompetent psychotic.”, to which she responds “He's not incompetent.”
But Val needs the job even though it’s being offered by his ex-wife and the man who stole her. He tells his agent Al “You know, I would kill for this job, but the people I want to kill are the people offering me the job.” He gets the job. But the day before filming starts, he gets psychosomatic blindness. Val wants to quit, but Al convinces him to go ahead with directing the film, because if he lost another job because of a mental problem he would be completely finished.
Fortunately Val hired a Chinese Director of Photography, and he drafts in the interpreter to help guide him around the set. The scam seems to work, though the end result may not be the best piece of cinema. After one of the test screenings Ed reads out an audience response card which says “Would you recommend this film to a friend? Not unless I was friendly with Hitler.”
Hollywood Ending’s set-up does require the audience to swallow quite a few implausibilities. For one, the fact that Val gets the job in the first place, and then the fact that he could direct a film blind without detection. And, what may be most disturbing to some people, that Woody Allen is linked with Téa Leoni, Debra Messing, and Tiffani Thiessen. The extent to which you can go along with these (and your tolerance for Woody’s acting) will really determine the enjoyment of Hollywood Ending.
The resulting film is pleasantly funny, and hilarious in some places. It’s never dull, but does go through stages of just being watchable. If haven’t already seen Woody’s classic films (Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanours, etc.) then I’d suggest catching them first. If you’ve seen his classics, Hollywood Ending is worth a watch. It’s not first-class Woody, but who can be picky? We’re not living in a golden age of movie comedy.
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