Hollywood Ending (2002)

1/5/06

A movie I saw recently: Woody Allens Hollywood Ending is probably one of those movies that I like more then it deserves. The story of has-been director Val Waxman who goes psychosomaticly blind when given a chance to direct a comeback film. Waxman is still hopelessly in love with his ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni) who is acting as a producer on the movie and is engaged to the head of the studio (Treat Williams). Of course Val is able to recovery his sight and win back the girl, but not until after having directed the entire film blind with the held of his ex, a Chinese translator and his agent (played by director Mark Rydall). Vals movie by the way is a total floop in America but the French love it. Hollywood Ending is a simple story from its standard Woody Allen opening sequence of white title cards against a black backdrop and a vintage score, to the closing line about Dramamean. This is one Allen movie that even the notoriously self critical director has stated came together just about perfectly, a marked improvement from his not fully realized film of the previous year The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. While I think Love and Death will always been Allens funnist film there were a few moments that I vocally laughed during this movie, and with its being rated PG-13 and not particularly artisy, it's one of the more accesable of the directors films for a mainstream audiance