What Just Happened

"What Just Happened" gets all the details right and the big picture wrong. It's well-written and well-filmed, but it's exactly the kind of movie that Ben, a producer played by Robert De Niro in the film, would not greenlight.

The film shows us two weeks in the life of Ben as he scrambles to deal with issues in his professional and personal lives. "What Just Happened" is very good at showing us the frenetic pace of a Hollywood producer, rushing to put out one fire after another. It manages to demonstrate the cold, hard logic of numbers that rules studio decisions without getting preachy, no small feat. And it gives us the seamier side of LA--using sex to get a film role, abusing pills and so on--in a matter-of-fact way, without rubbing our nose in how dirty things can get.

Trouble is, the three crises Ben is dealing with are slender reeds on which to hang a film. He's trying win back his ex-wife--one of two we meet--but she's sleeping with someone else. He's wrestling with a director, who appears to be based on a combination of Sid Vicious and Keith Richards, over taking out a controversial dog shooting in his new film. And he's fighting mightily with Bruce Willis, playing an outsized version of himself, to shave a ridiculous beard before a new movie begins filming.

"What Just Happened" never really delves past the surface in dealing with these issues. Ben's half-hearted attempts to win back his wife are clearly never going to work. The Willis subplot is particularly undercooked. Ben doesn't even try to negotiate--how about a goatee?--or find out why Willis wants to play the character with a beard. These sins might be more forgivable if "What Just Happened" played as a breezy comedy. But while there are clearly efforts at humor here, they fall very short. There's little effort made at witty dialogue or comedic setpieces. A running gag involving an agent with some sort of hacking cough gets very old.

It's very unfortunate, because "What Just Happened" is a well-made, well-intentioned film with a loaded cast. De Niro plays a variation on his character in the terrific "Wag the Dog," a cynical insider who's seen it all. He doesn't try very hard, but with his talent, he doesn't have to. Stanley Tucci, John Tuturro and Catherine Keener, all capable scene stealers, do solid work. Sean Penn and Willis both play versions of themselves. As one might expect, Penn plays a credible version of himself, while Willis has fun going way over the top as the bearded, overweight diva. Even Kristen Stewart gets to do her usual brooding thing as Ben's daughter.

These characters would all fare well in a grim drama or, better, a zany comedy. But "What Just Happened" is too serious to be funny and too funny to be serious.