Review of Hollywood Ending

As said before, Woody Allen is a very acquired taste. To me he has made a lot of great films, a handful of masterpieces and while there have been some disappointments, while there are films of his yet to see, none of them have been terrible. Hollywood Ending has often been considered lesser Allen, and while it is not a masterpiece in any shape or form(like Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes and Misdeameanours, Hannah and Her Sisters, Husbands and Wives and Purple Rose of Cairo, Zelig is also very close to being one) and does fall short of great it is not among the bottom(so far What's Up Tiger Lily, To Rome with Love, Celebrity, Anything Else and Cassandra's Dream, although all of them had a fair share of redeeming qualities). Hollywood Ending is imperfect, the blindness joke has been much criticised and I have to agree, it is a joke so stretched out it becomes very tiring, the pacing as a result in the last act lost momentum and credibility went out the window. Much more could have been done with the subplot and relationship of Allen's character and his son, it was pretty much in the background and like a secondary subplot and it was a subplot that if more prominent could have given the film more heart and it would have made their relationship more interesting, in the end it felt under-baked. On the other hand, Hollywood Ending as always with Allen is very well-directed and looks fabulous with cinematography that is colourful and dreamlike. Hollywood Ending aside from the blindness joke is a very entertaining film, the one-liners are just delicious, Val has the best lines and they are just hilarious, and the gags are very characteristic of Allen and are well-engineered. As ever with Woody Allen, the film also has a lot to say about various subjects and explores them in an insightful and sometimes self-mocking way(that is sometimes and understandably considered self-indulgence). The story up till the last act has relationships and issues that we can identify with strongly, is well-paced and there is plenty of compelling story-telling. Hollywood Ending is expertly played with the best performance coming from Tea Leoni, who is immensely charming with very easy comic timing, closely followed by Woody Allen himself, who makes the most of his lines and delivers them in a way that makes them even funnier. Treat Williams is always a joy and Debra Messing looks as though she's enjoying herself. Admittedly some of the cast should have had more to work with, such as George Hamilton, but they are no less impressive. On the whole, Hollywood Ending has its flaws and Allen has done better work but it is an entertaining film in a lot of ways. 7/10 Bethany Cox