Review by Harvey Karten
3 stars out of 4
Anyone who has been on the psychotherapist's couch for
years, even weeks, can tell you exactly what problems he faces.
He can talk about these issues until he's blue in the face, but
alas, as any decent shrink will tell you, knowing intellectually
that you have a problem is not the same as working it out
emotionally. In that respect, no one can say that Woody Allen is
in denial about his. One of the genius directors of the past
thirty-seven years, the sixty-six year old Mr. Allen never hid the
fact to the public that he has been undergoing therapy forever.
He realizes that he's a hypochondriac (in one self-reflective film
he opens an attache case loaded to the brim with pills), but
knowing in your head that the illness has no physical causality is
not the same as exuding a feeling of health and well-being. His
success as a filmmaker, writer and actor has apparently not
diminished his neuroses or cured his anhedonia, but to his
eternal credit he makes art out of misery, thereby delighting the
rest of us, if not himself. In "Hollywood Ending" Woody may not
be at his best (that spot is reserved for "Annie Hall,") but
whereas an ordinary person talking about his operation may
bore the hell out of his circle of pals, Woody has a way of
making his own dilemmas delightful to those discriminating fans
who adore even flops like "Interiors" and "Shadows and Fog."
Neurotic he may be but at least he's learned to do what he
does best and that's to make people laugh. So it's goodbye
Kafka, hello "Hollywood Ending," a delightful movie with expert
comic timing which, despite a few lines that fall flat or are even
embarrassing (as when he calls his ring-pierced son by the
same that the young man prefers), is a comic gem. While I was
not amused by a comment from a young man in the story,
"Critics are the lowest form of the culture," the movie is
peppered by such bon mots as "Sex is better than talking. Just
ask anyone here. Talking is what you have to suffer through to
get to the sex." Amen.
Woody Allen performs in the role of Val Waxman, who, like
Mr. Allen himself, has passed the high point of his career, but
unlike the director needs to succeed in making a new movie or
his career is over. Val is still very much in love with his ex-wife,
Ellie (played by the stunning Tea Leoni, who has the bearing of
Hillary Clinton but is much better looking), but Ellie, fed up
dealing with her husband's hypochondria and adolescent needs
has abandoned him to become engaged to the slick and
handsome Hal (Treat Williams). Convincing Hal, the head of a
studio, that he should bankroll his new work, "The City That
Never Sleeps" with Val as director, she meets considerable
opposition from the studio heads but ultimately, Hal agrees that
Val's the best man for this particular job.
Serious trouble arises when Val develops a psychosomatic
condition, hysterical blindness. Unable to see even from the first
day of the shoot, Val enlists the aid of his principal confidant, his
agent Al (Mark Rydell), determined to hide his condition lest he
be fired on the spot, his entire life's career down the tubes.
Much of the laughter from this story, yet another film about the
making of a film, comes from Val's Fellini-esque attempts to fool
everyone into thinking that his eyesight is a sound as his vision.
Woody Allen has assembled a terrific cast in small roles,
particularly Peter Gerety as the psychiatrist who discovers the
cause of the blindness; Mark Rydell, who could pass for Mel
Brooks, as his trusted and loyal agent; and Mark Webber as
Val's bandleader son Tony. The part of Lori, who plays Val's
bimbo girlfriend in the relationship only to get a part in the
movie is taken reasonably well by Debra Messing but Marisa
Tomei would have been the top choice hands down.
As further indication that art follows life, Val insists that a
foreigner be selected as photographer for the movie "The City
That Never Sleeps," and lo, German cinematographer Wedigo
von Schultzendorff has done a smashing job with "Hollywood
Ending," making New York look as magnificent as Tea Leoni,
particularly in a scene of the city as dusk as the sun sinks below
the great Manhattan skyline. "Hollywood Ending" is an ode to
New York, Woody Allen's favorite city, just the film that could
revive the tourist industry here in the Big Apple. Given the title
of Mr. Allen's movie, who do you think winds up honeymooning
with Ellie: her ex-husband Val or her handsome and rich studio
chief fiance Hal?
Copyright © 2002 Harvey Karten
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