Starring: Robert De Niro, Catherine Keener, John Turturro, Bruce Willis
Director: Barry Levinson
Category: IIB
What Just Happened comes laden with ironies. Barry Levinson's insider satire was re-edited after a largely negative reception at last year's Sundance festival, mirroring the film in which a British director (Michael Wincott, above left) is forced to recut his trigger-happy flick after a disastrous test screening.
That movie-within-a-movie (with Sean Penn - playing himself - in the lead) opens at the Cannes Film Festival to muted responses, just as What Just Happened closed this year's actual event (with a jury headed by, well, Sean Penn) with a whimper. This is not to mention that the film features Bruce Willis as a narcissistic actor named Bruce Willis, and its protagonist Ben, played by Robert De Niro (above right), is going through a messy divorce with his wife, played by Robin Wright Penn, who in reality has just endured a year of marital turbulence with Sean Penn.
These back stories make What Just Happened amusing, given how the film - based on producer Art Linson's book - aims to be a witty dissection of the hubris of Tinseltown. But if it could only be more engaging. While Tropic Thunder counters the excesses of corporate Hollywood with equally excessive narrative devices, What Just Happened offers too understated an expose of the workings of the US commercial film industry. In a world where cynicism reigns, and millions are gained and lost with one product, Levinson's romanticised realist approach is a poor fit.
