Plot
A director is forced to work with his ex-wife, who left him for the boss of the studio bankrolling his new film. But the night before the first day of shooting, he develops a case of psychosomatic blindness.
Release Year: 2002
Rating: 6.4/10 (12,986 voted)
Critic's Score: 46/100
Director:
Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Téa Leoni, Bob Dorian
Storyline Val Waxman is a film director who was once big in the 1970's and 1980's, but has now has been reduced to directing TV commercials. Finally, he gets an offer to make a big film. But, disaster strikes, when Val goes temporarily blind, due to paranoia. So, he and a few friends, try to cover up his disability, without the studio executives or the producers knowing that he is directing the film blind.
Cast: Téa Leoni
-
Ellie
Bob Dorian
-
Galaxie Executive
Ivan Martin
-
Galaxie Executive
Gregg Edelman
-
Galaxie Executive
George Hamilton
-
Ed
Treat Williams
-
Hal
Woody Allen
-
Val
Debra Messing
-
Lori
Neal Huff
-
Commercial A.D.
Mark Rydell
-
Al
Douglas McGrath
-
Barbeque Guest
Stephanie Roth Haberle
-
Barbeque Guest
Bill Gerber
-
Barbeque Guest
Roxanne Perry
-
Barbeque Guest
Barbara Carroll
-
Carlyle Pianist
Filming Locations: Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $16,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $2,017,981
(USA)
(5 May 2002)
(765 Screens)
Gross: $4,839,383
(USA)
(23 June 2002)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
The film opened the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
when Val Waxman recovers his sight in the park, the angle where the sun light hits the buildings in the background is different than the angle where the light hits Val and Ellie.
Quotes: Ellie:
Our marriage wasn't going anywhere. Val:
Where do you want it to go? Where do marriages go? After a while they just lay there. That's the thing about marriages.
User Review
I thought it was funny
Rating: 7/10
Before the film came out, I read some reviews saying that they felt Woody
was back in top form, but now I'm reading reviews that say otherwise. I
guess many people feel that in the case of a greatly talented filmmaker like
Woody, after wooing audiences with his earlier works like "Annie Hall" and
"Manhattan," there's nowhere left to go but down. So whenever people bash
his films, they don't bash them in the same way they would the next
SNL-inspired dud. They bash them even more brutally simply because he's
Woody and they can't help but expect more from him.
"Hollywood Ending" is no gem, with moments that obviously drag, but I felt
it worked. It's an excellent premise for a farcical comedy, and it played
out fluently. My only criticism about the "blind" element of the film dealt
with Woody's performance. Each scene where he talks to someone, he
purposely turns away from that person. He was obviously trying way too hard
to stress the fact that his character's blind (I guess in case the audience
somehow forgot halfway through). People who are blind actually have a
strong sense of hearing. Like the comic book character of Daredevil, their
other four senses are heightened. When they're first faced with the
blindness, it's hard to cope, but after a short while they get used to it.
Like most of Woody's films, the cast is an ensemble of multi-talented actors
who each contribute more than their own five cents into the work. There was
even an funny unbilled cameo by Isaac Mizrahi. A lot of people project
snobbery upon Woody's recent work, but I happened to enjoy this movie very
much, and the same goes with "Small-Time Crooks" and "Curse of the Jade
Scorpion." As long as you don't proceed with gigantic expectations, you
should have a lot of fun.
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