1959. What is Adrien Brody's character? A sort of private eye / PR guy? That could've been clearer. He was with the police, that much we know (seems to be more than one Chinatown shadow that hangs over this story, which is based on true events). Anyway, he's investigating the death of TV's Superman George Reeves, Ben Affleck, financed by his mother Lois Childs, whilst in parallel flashback, we see Reeves' relationship with lover Mrs Mannix (Diane Lane) and her husband, powerful MGM figure Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), and various other sundry characters.
Where this leaves us is with various possible murderers, or suicide, and I wonder whether it would have been a better idea for Paul Bernbaum to have made his mind up and present one version or another as he saw it. Whilst very watchable, the film is elusive, like Mount Etna on a cloudy day, and it doesn't help that the Brody character is not very likeable - the film could have done with a couple of measures of humour too.
Robin Tunney is the tartish girl who ends up with him at the death house, Kathleen Robertson plays someone else, Caroline Dhavernas is I think Brody's PA, Larry Cedar is an investigator, Joe Spano is the Mannix PR guy and Jeffrey DeMunn makes an impression as, er.. someone. Yes, I did feel a little confused here and there.
The score is also a Chinatown soundalike (Marcelo Zarvos). Photographed by Jonathan Freeman.
The real Eddie Mannix, shady MGM 'fixer' and protector of the stars' images, was the inspiration for Hail, Caesar!
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