Hey folks, Harry here with a look at Woody Allen's latest film, HOLLYWOOD ENDING. I'm seeing this flick tonight when Woody presents it himself, here in Austin as part of a University of Texas screening. As a life long Woody Allen fan, I'm dying to get a chance to both see his latest film, which is going to open the Cannes Film Festival this year, as well as have an opportunity to hear him speak and perhaps meet him. God, I'd love for him to take over the Oscar hosting job. Ahem... hint hint hint...
I had a opportunity to catch Woody Allen's latest this morning at a Talk Cinema screening this morning in Toronto. If you don't know, Talk Cinema is an offshoot of the Toronto Filmfest and is a monthly screening series. The films are presented in a mystery format and you don't know what you are going to see until the film rolls. The admission is steep ($25 ) and so you tend to get a very film savvy audience that is willing to take chances. The films are always followed by an audience discussion of the film sometimes with people involved in the film or as it was today with local film critics. This provides an opportunity for hearing a wide range of views on the film.
I was pleasantly surprised that today's film was Hollywood ending since the films in the series this year have tended to very small independent films and foreign films.
As a synopsis, the film deals with an Oscar winning director, Val Waxman (Woody Allen) who has fallen on bad times due to his history of on set tantrums. When the film opens he is Canada filming a deodorant commercial. His chance to return from exile arises in an opportunity to direct a feature called The City that Never Sleeps, a film being produced by his ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni). To complicate matters the head of the studio making the film is Hal (Treat Williams), Ellie's fiancé and the man that stole her from Val. The films get rolling when Val develops psychosomatic blindness just before filming is to begin. Realizing that this is his last chance at a comeback his manager Al ( Mark Rydell) and he conspire with the cinematographer‚s translator to hide the fact that Val is blind. We are treated to an array of humorous bits revolving around his attempts to direct while blind. When the translator is fired they bring Ellie into the conspiracy. As a side plot we have Val's therapist suggest that his filming a movie about a father's fractured relationship with his son and Val' s stormy relationship with his own son may be the reason for his blindness. The movie is completed and Val reunites in a way with his son. The film is panned by preview audiences and critics and opens poorly. Hal learns that Ellie was hiding the blindness from him and ends the relationship. Then the Hollywood ending of the film kicks in, Val and Ellie reunite, Val regains his sight and the film opens huge in France. The film ends with Val and Ellie moving to Paris to start Val's new career in French film.
I've gone quickly over the plot summary since that isn't what is important in a Woody Allen film. The film is a satire of the Hollywood studio system and as such is quite good. As a comedy, it works much better than many of Allen's recent films. The satire is quite biting and was well received by the audiences. Woody Allen has always written excellent comedy roles for women and Tia Leone truly shines in this one. George Hamilton has a small role as a studio executive and steal every scene he is in. And Woody Allen plays Woody Allen a role he was born to play.
Overall the film was well received by the audience but several members of the audience suggested that Woody's nebbish character is wearing thin. The audience mainly agreed that the film fits into Woody's more slapstick mode, but several members felt the comedy was too broad and obvious. Their view was that the blindness was overplayed in that Val couldn't locate people by their voices and was always talking to them in the wrong direction. This feeling was echoed by one of the local reviewers who added that he felt the entire subplot with the son was unnecessary. Many in the audience felt the film was overly long at105 min.
I disagreed with the general view of the movie and felt there was much more going on in the film. For me the film is Woody discussing his feelings of alienation from Hollywood. Val's blindness is merely a way to represent this. The fact that Val can't connect with people even with their voices just drives this point home. I feel that the subplot with the son is in fact the core of the film. When Val visits the son for the first times after several years, it is made clear that estrangement is totally in Val's mind and the son feels no ill will. I think this is an important fact in view of The fact that Woody is slow emerging into the Hollywood mainstream with his relationship with Dreamworks, his appearance at the Oscars and the fact that he will be attending Cannes for the first time. The visit with the son comes at about the 90- minute mark and I feel this is important part since this is the length of almost every other Woody Allen film and feels like the real ending. The last 15 minutes has the feeling of being tacked on and is relatively unnecessary in a thematic sense. I think that the fact that the movie is 15 minutes longer than usual for Woody is meant to stress his view of the Hollywood ending.
If you've read this far thank you. If you have use of any of this feel free.
Sincerely Chris Harrison
