When George Reeves put a bullet in his head, TV-addicted kids in America were devastated. If indeed that was what happened. Allegedly despondent over his type-casting as Superman, the 45-year-old actor went upstairs one night and never came down. Some friends swore he couldn't have killed himself, that it had to have been murder. And sure, there were just enough sordid details to his life that maybe, just maybe, someone else pulled the trigger on that luger.

Of course, no one can prove it. So right from the start, Hollywoodland has a tough row to hoe. Taking speculation from the book Hollywood Kryptonite, The Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman and an upcoming biography of Reeves, screenwriter Paul Bernbaum tries out a few theories, funneled through the investigation of real-life private detective Louis Simo (Adrien Brody).

Perhaps forcing a noir feel a bit, Bernbaum and Director Allen Coulter present Simo as a detective down on his luck. Somewhat debauched but not unhappy about it, the seedy Simo spends most of his time trailing unfaithful spouses. It's steady work, but not the kind that makes a man what you'd call a success.

When he gets a tip from an old partner that Helen Bessolo (Lois Smith) wants to investigate her son George Reeves' (Ben Affleck) suicide, Simo sees the big time. A real Hollywood crime gets the headlines, and the headlines gets the big bucks.

Conveniently, or accurately, as Simo investigates, he also has to sort through the grief of his son Evan (Zach Mills). It gives a personal focus to the devastation of kids everywhere. With Superman gone, Evan lost his role model; Dad had already walked out on the family years ago.

Hollywoodland offers a rough parallel chronology. Following Simo on his awkward path back to dignity as a man, the film intercuts his investigation with key points in Reeves' life. Some of them bear directly on his death; some just show how George Reeves became blessed and cursed as the idol of millions everywhere.

The problem with this structure is that Hollywood keeps losing track of its focus. Though Affleck delivers a true star turn as Reeves, the script won't let him be the main character in his own life story. Instead, he's often charming and little else, cruising along as outside forces affect his fortunes.

Among those forces would be Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), the wife of studio mogul Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins). Though Reeves was with Lenore Lemmon (Robin Tunney) when he died, it's Mannix who was clearly the love of his life. Years older - the film stays a bit vague as to how much older - Mannix literally kept Reeves through most of his years as Superman.

Is it her story? Is it Lenore's? Or is it that Hollywoodland wants to convince us that it's all something like Chinatown? The whole place is just corrupt, and though Reeves was no innocent, neither he nor later Simo are really prepared for the casual cruelty and amorality that pervades the movie business. Er, pervaded.

The film does a good job of showing the harsh realities of Hollywood(land). With all the glitter and glamour, it gets hard to separate the hope from the hype. If Reeves did shoot himself, the film makes a good case for his despondency.

It might be hard to grasp the power of Reeves' image as Superman now. He wasn't the first to play him, but he was the one in the nascent days of television's power; the script claims that ninety percent of family homes with televisions watched The Adventures of Superman. Right now, it's impossible to think of 90% of a demographic (and this was before "demographics") coming together on anything.

Where the pull really comes is that the interesting story isn't Simo's, because ultimately, his discoveries and conclusions are dramatized speculation. Every time the film goes to Reeves, that's where we want to stay. But the split structure sometimes leave the Reeves scenes too soon, and more like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle than a coherent narrative.

Perhaps ironically, this could be the role that rehabilitates Ben Affleck's career. For the first time in a while, the guy is really acting, working on matching his cadences to Reeves', altering his voice a bit and trying not to use his own charm. While not imitation, his performance does get at some insights to the character, and the dichotomy of a man torn between his own interests and a sense of obligation to the children that idolized him. Again, that's the interesting story.

It's not that Brody fails, either. He has nuances with Simo, subtly growing into self-awareness and past self-loathing into something better. That performance helps Hollywoodland reach for something deep in its conclusion. Yet it still feels vaguely unsatisfying.

Deeply satisfying though underwritten, Diane Lane takes a bold step in portraying Toni Mannix. Aged quite effectively, she underplays Mannix' desperation and strange affection for her husband. When Hoskins has a tender scene with her late in the film, it's almost like something out of The Great Gatsby.

Most of the other characters come across as pretty one-note, just to make the whole thing feel like noir. They're less people than attitudes, though some, like Joe Spano and Tunney, seem to be having fun with it.

Yet this story isn't fun. It's sad, and if it had sharper focus, it could have been heartbreaking.

Rating:

Derek McCaw