Hollywood Ending (2002)

Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen, Téa Leoni, Treat Williams, George Hamilton, Mark Rydell, Debra Messing, Barney Cheng, Jodie Markell, Lu Yu, Marian Seldes, Tiffani Amber Thiessen. [PG-13]

Having fallen on hard times, movie director Val Waxman (Allen) gets a shot at a comeback with an offer from ex-wife Leoni (also the current girlfriend of studio chief Williams) to helm a major motion picture, but the production quickly approaches the brink of disaster when the director is struck by psychosomatic blindness! A curiously ineffectual laffer that has a number of amusing moments and even a few real laughs, but nothing to build on, and there’s neither audacity to the creative material nor any significant stakes/friction to develop comic tension as it putters along. Contains the usual handful of witty quips and exchanges, but the biggest laugh is reserved for a bit of physical humor, cleverly played out in the background (hard to miss, though). Too many of the supporting characters are presented as caricatures, but at least some of those caricatures are spot on. The absence of Allen’s regular editor, Susan E. Morse, takes a toll on the overall pace and zip—it’s one of the longest films he’s yet released. First time that one of Woody’s pictures opened the Cannes Film Festival.

56/100