What Just Happened

Not even De Niro makes this film worth watching

Premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, What Just Happened tells the story of one of Hollywood’s most powerful fictional producers, played by Robert De Niro. It begins with him describing in a voiceover how we’re about to see how he lost his power and credibility in the industry over a few weeks.

The job of a movie producer is very interesting. Most of us only see movies without knowing the mass amounts of planning, scheduling and work that goes into making them. A film based on this idea could be very interesting and informative, only this one is not.

Instead of taking an Entourage point of view and showing us the strenuous work of Hollywood, it toots its own horn and says, “See how hard our million dollar work is? Do you see how much we sacrifice to bring you good films that you don’t appreciate?” And it tries making us feel bad for people who earn millions of dollars each year.

The final product of What Just Happened is boring. There are a few great scenes, most of them showing the relationship between De Niro and his ex-wife played by Robin Wright Penn. I’d rather see a full length film based on their failed marriage than his dealings in the movie business.

Bottom line, What Just Happened tries to be humorous by placing you in the shoes of a movie producer, but instead just comes across as pretentious. It’s a movie made for people within the industry, not for us outsiders.

Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures