A blind adventure Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending is a gag bag

Enter summer, and Hollywood's big blockbusters follow. But there are some smaller films (Cat's Meow, The Mystic Masseur) that leave their mark on audiences. Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending falls in this category.

Allen plays Val Waxman, a washed up two-time Oscar winning director. His personal life is in shambles, living with a much younger actress (Debra Messing). Waxman's ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni), who he still has feelings for, is the fiancιe of a studio head (Treat Williams).

Ellie also has feelings for Val but is turned off by his neurotic behavior, the cause of their divorce. She recommends his name for the studio's next project, a big-budget thriller titled The City That Never Sleeps.

"I love Val, but with all due respect, he's a raving, incompetent psychotic," says Ed (George Hamilton), the studio's yes man, in one of the early lines from the film. "He's not incompetent," counters Ellie.

Val is a bit reluctant to take the job but is desperate for a comeback. And he knows the project is tailor made for him.

"I would kill for this job, but the people I want to kill are the people offering me the job," he tells his longtime friend and agent, played by Mark Rydell.

Just when shooting is about to begin, a nervous Val develops psychosomatic blindness. But he doesn't want to lose the job, so he enlists the help of a Chinese translator, hired to work with the cameraman, to help him through the shoot.

Val plays through his blindness, resulting in a series of visual gags including a funny bit with an actress (Tiffani Thiessen) who seduces him in her dressing room. If you were to find fault in Hollywood Ending, it's this part, which drags and lacks energy. Allen, who has written and directed the material, really doesn't show how Val manages to make the film, depending solely on the gags.

The ending is also predictably sweet, with Allen saluting his fans in France. A typical Woody Allen film makes about $12 million in North America and $5 million in France alone. Allen's character Val takes the time to credit the French for keeping his career afloat, in a one-liner that industry insiders will appreciate. But there are other one-liners that mainstream viewers are bound to connect with.

It is also interesting to watch Val and Ellie, as Allen and Leoni enjoy good chemistry, a far cry from last year's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion in which Allen was opposite Helen Hunt.

The supporting roles are quite strong: Messing, Hamilton, Rydell and Williams fit into their small parts well. Hollywood Ending is certainly not one of Allen's best films. But if you are looking for a diversion from the action-dominated pictures this summer, it could be your cup of tea.