What Just Happened

‘What Just Happened’ is based on the memoir of film producer Art Linson Ben (Robert De Niro). It begins with Ben’s latest film being criticised by the studio for its ‘brutal’ dog killing scene at the screen test before the release. At the same time, the future of his upcoming film hangs in balance as Bruce Willis (playing himself) has not only put on enormous weight but sports a huge beard that the studio wants to do away with. Also on home turf, Ben is facing relationship crisis with his daughter and estranged wife Kelly (Robin Penn).

As a result, Ben leads a 360 degree life — fully preoccupied in every aspect. It is a funny and bitter experience watching him trying to figure out what a producer really does when he is in the midst of studio heads who want to put money in the right wallet, the actor who has his own ways, the director who wants to make an art cinema and a wife who dates his own associate.

Ben’s endless phone calls, grinds and smiles at the dark-comedy prevailing in Hollywood filmmaking are amusing. His efforts at making Bruce Willis the star of his next action movie and to get him to shave off his beard are equally hilarious. Surprisingly, real actors Bruce Willis and Sean Penn happily appear as themselves though the film takes a digs at their character a bit. Overall, ‘What Just Happened’ is slow, funny and yet tiresome because it lacks that punch to knock you off guard and take notice of the endless satires centred around the life of a Hollywood film producer.