Can a director hide his blindness while shooting a major Hollywood blockbuster movie?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 2002 comedy Hollywood Ending, a washed-up director lands a massive comeback project, only to be struck by psychosomatic blindness just before filming begins. To save his career, he hides his condition from the studio, leading to a chaotic production that forces him to confront his past and personal relationships.

The film follows Val Waxman, a once-celebrated director reduced to shooting deodorant commercials in Canada. When his ex-wife and her current partner—a studio head—offer him a chance to helm a big-budget New York blockbuster, he accepts under pressure from his agent, Al Hack. The central conceit is the protagonist's struggle to maintain the facade of sight while navigating the complexities of a major film set, a secret he keeps from his cast, crew, and the studio executives.

The production of the film itself was marked by behind-the-scenes friction. Original cinematographer Haskell Wexler was dismissed after only one week due to creative disagreements with director Woody Allen, and was subsequently replaced by Wedigo von Schultzendorff. Critics later pointed to the absence of long-time editor Susan Morse, who had worked with Allen since 1979, as a potential reason for the film's perceived pacing issues. Critic Bryant Frazer noted that the 114-minute runtime lacked the characteristic brevity of Allen's earlier work, suggesting that the film suffered from rambling shots and poor editing.

Upon release, the movie faced a lukewarm reception. It earned less than $5 million domestically, though it found a more appreciative audience in France, where it was later screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Critical consensus was largely negative, with a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 46/100 score on Metacritic. In 2016, critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey went as far as to rank it as the worst film in Allen's entire catalog. Despite its commercial and critical struggles, the narrative serves as a meta-commentary on the industry, ending with the protagonist finding success abroad and famously declaring his gratitude for the French market.

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