I’m not ashamed to say that I like Ben Affleck; but after a string of stinkers including Gigli, Paycheck and Surviving Christmas, I was beginning to wonder, if I’d ever be able to write a good review of an Affleck film. Well, Hollywoodland isn’t a great movie, but it is a good one and Affleck’s performance was one of the best things about it.

Before there was Christopher Reeve, there was George Reeves (Ben Affleck), television’s original Superman. The show was one of television’s first big deals. Sure, you could see the cables while Superman was ‘flying’ but at the time, he was Super, especially to the kids. Real life was another thing though and on June 16, 1959 Reeves said goodnight to his fiancé Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney) and several houseguest. He went upstairs where he died from a gunshot wound to the head. It was dubbed a suicide, or was it?

Reeves had been involved with Toni Mannix (Diane Lane) for several years. She was the wife of MGM Studios honcho Ed Mannix (Bob Hoskins). Reeve had recently dumped her for Lemmon and she wasn’t taking it well. Even though Toni and husband Ed (Bob Hoskins) were open about their outside relationships, Ed hated to see his wife so distraught. One theory is that Ed Mannix had Reeves killed. Then again, Reeves had just told Leonore that the engagement wasn’t going any further; they were not going to get married. One theory is that Leonore shot him during an argument.

Trying to piece everything together is private eye Louis Simo (Adrien Brody). Low on cash and down-on-his-luck, the recently divorced PI is hired by Reeve’s mother (Lois Smith) to find out what really happened.

Hollywoodland unfolds on two tracks. We have the ‘present’ day where Simo investigates the suicide. Personally, he’s also coping with his divorce and the toll that the divorce and the death of Superman has on his young son. The second are scenes from Reeves’ life that shed some light on whether he was capable of suicide or if someone else pulled the trigger.

While Brody’s performance is solid, the best performances belong to Affleck and Lane. In fact, I almost hated to come back to the present because the past was so compelling. Lane, who plays a character older than herself, captures the love Toni had for Reeves and the desperation of a woman who is growing older in a world that craves youth and beauty. Affleck, maybe from personal experience, displays the restless frustration of a typecast actor – a man who believes himself to be capable of so much more than he’s given.

My biggest problem with Hollywoodland is that it didn’t dig deep enough. The real Reeve case is a compelling one. It raises lots of questions and it’s filled with evidence and clues that don’t add up. The film touches on some of these on the surface but we have just as many questions at the end as we had at the beginning.

While moving between both storylines makes the movie a little bloated and longer than it should be, Hollywoodland is still worth the price of a matinee admission.