Rating: PG13
Genre:
Comedy
Theatrical Release: 05/03/2002(USA)
Release Date: 09/17/2002
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 112 Minutes
Flags: Adult Language, Sexual Situations, Drug Content
Distributor/Studio: DreamWorks
A down-on-his luck auteur gets one more chance at the big time -- provided his neuroses don't swallow him whole -- in
Woody Allen's 33rd feature release,
Hollywood Ending.
Allen plays
Val Waxman, a one-time cinematic genius who's resorted to taking advertisement work to pay the bills for himself and his airhead live-in girlfriend,
Lori (
Debra Messing).
Val finds his luck is about to change, however, when he receives the script for
The City Never Sleeps, a period
noir set against the backdrop of 1940s New York City. It seems his ex-wife,
Ellie (
Tea Leoni), now an executive at Galaxy Pictures, has been pulling for him to direct the picture, claiming he's the only man who can do justice to the script. She even manages to convince her boyfriend,
Hal (
Treat Williams), Galaxy's high-powered studio head, to take a chance on
Val's "unique vision." Just when the cameras are ready to roll, however,
Val finds that unique vision in jeopardy -- literally -- as he's struck with a psychosomatic case of blindness. When physicians and psychiatrists fail to cure him,
Val contrives a scheme to forge ahead with the picture, for fear of blowing his one last chance at greatness.
Hollywood Ending co-stars
George Hamilton and
Mark Rydell.
~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide