Standard feelgood end treacle makes it a less good than it might have been.

Rating: 6/10 (27 August 2009)

Why does Hollywood always insist on a happy ending? Why? Yes, I know the bottom line is bucks and nothing but bucks, but doesn't someone in Tinseltown have the wit to make a movie which will keep the cash tills rolling and, for once, still avoid the buckets of treacly sentimentality which Hollywood has made its own? Someone, somewhere please! Hancock is a very good case in point. It is not your usual run of the mill film, it has several nice twists, there is a certain originality in the story and it seems set to break the mould and end on a downbeat, although not one which would be too downbeat. But no, we can't have that, can we. The Western World wants to believe in the Tooth Fairy and sundry notions that it will all come good in the end, so Hancock, too, is obliged to go down the road of slushy sentimentality and end up on a cheery note, so that the punters can 'feel good'. Perhaps there's something wrong with me that my heart actually sinks when everything ends up white picket fences and fresh apple pie. The irony is that Hancock has a good story to tell and at its centre is something of an enigma. The special effects are also something else, and although everyone and his dog now knows that the magic is nothing but several hundred special effects artists spending several months behind their Apple Macs, there's is still that wow factor. How do they do it, how do they have superhero Hancock smash into buildings and take huge chunks out of the masonry? Computers, of course. Yeah, right — but how? Look elsewhere for a synopsis of Hancock. It always seems rather daft to spend most of these reviews retelling what happened. Will Smith is, as always, Will Smith and I have always liked Will Smith, ever since his Fresh Prince days. It would be good to see him stretch himself a little with some character acting but . . . Charlize Theron deserves a great deal of credit for allowing several close-ups to be used which show her skin is less than perfect, but she is, after all, of Afrikaner stock and such people are at tad more down to earth than your average nubile Mid-West wannabe. Don't let me put you off this film (especially, of course, if you are in the majority and are something of a sucker for sentimental, schlocky closure) but all I can say is that I have a niggling suspicion the Hancock, in other hands, produced in another culture could have been a far better film. As it is it gets 6/7 out of 10.