What Just Happened Amuses Without the Typical Hollywood Movie Excess

The front cover of the DVD case for What Just Happened declares, “laugh out loud funny.” Sorry, the 2009 Barry Levinson film starring Robert De Niro as a big wheel Hollywood movie producer does not live up and appears to have no inclination to even try. But don’t move on, that’s because the Art Linson penned comedy refuses to settle and lets the punchlines play out as if the double-take doesn’t just apply to the titular character’s downfall.

De Niro stars as the producer in question and the day in a life we get is actually a two-week descent into oblivion. “Power is an elusive term, but in Hollywood, it's everything. I don't care what they say. You either have it, want it, or you're afraid of losing it,” De Niro voices over the desperate caricature perfectly. The reality TV show tone of the camera work also turns the hovering insanity into the commonplace.

This has the up close and personal levitation briefly conjuring Casino and readies you for another inside look. Only this time it’s the machinations of Hollywood excess. So you do need a little extra readjustment to defer the goodfella in favor of the less familiar goof delivering the gags.

Artistic Integrity versus the Bottom Line

De Niro doesn’t miss a beat either, and you're quickly in Midnight Run, Meet the Parents and Analyze This mode. Here, Ben’s unraveling begins at the test screening of his latest production. A violent one-off not likely seen in the history of film, the audience’s abhorrence lands him in the crosshairs between artistic integrity and the studio’s bottom line.

Sean Penn, on the receiving end of sorts, doesn’t mind playing his own quiet, yet artistically abrasive caricature. With nothing more than a few agreeable smiles and inflections as himself, he’s all for the art - even if the viewing public suffers a mass arrhythmia in the process.

But it’s the director that has to be leveled off for Ben to find a happy medium. “My guts are in the cut,” Johnny makes Sean Penn’s hubris seem grounded.

Child’s Play is Everywhere in La La Land

Of course, the on-set child’s play never stays home and gives Ben two ex-wives to his credit. Two stately mansions to go with it and three children; all the rewards still don’t exclude the exalted from exposure to the same pain that the earth-bound among us suffer.

Not to worry, though, De Niro and Robin Wright don’t disappoint with their own unique form of Hollywood couples' therapy and inbred love entanglements that always lead back to the Boulevard.

But none of this is new. Californication, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Wag the Dog all split our sides as we joyfully descended. And if you want the definitive romp, see Merle Miller’s best selling 1962 novel, Only You, Dick Daring, which by the way, I’ve adapted a screenplay of my own. (Hey, you never know, and I crave the craziness, too).

Maybe There’s hope for Hollywood Movies

The difference is the delayed reaction. What Just Happened implies and implements only a latent amusement. Content to wait, the camera follows Robert De Niro around the tribulations of the Hollywood maze and doesn’t have anyone breaking out the other end until successive scenes finally converge to evoke nothing more than a reserved chuckle.

Satisfying nonetheless, the closest thing to going over the top is the poetic license Bruce Willis applies to his beard and a refusal to getting any closer to a razor for the blockbuster Ben is producing. But that’s Bruce Willis. We know he’s not a jerk. If you’ve ever seen him go on David Letterman and self-deprecate, you two-week, he’s just like us.

Or maybe the megastar just wants you to think that by going the extra mile to poke fun at everyone else, he’s taking the attention off his own excess. You can only wonder.

But the fact that Levinson and Linson went for something less formulaic and more risky at least gives solace that regardless of the lunacy, sometimes it really pays off.

Rich Monetti can be reached at [email protected]