"What Just Happened": There's something happening here, but it's just not that funny

In Barry Levinson's "Wag the Dog," Dustin Hoffman played a deliciously cynical Hollywood producer charged with creating a fake war. A decade later, in Levinson's "What Just Happened," Robert De Niro plays a not-quite-so-deliciously cynical Hollywood producer trying to salvage a sure-to-flop movie. The director and subject matter make the comparison fair, but it doesn't do "What Just Happened" any favors. If you're expecting "Wag the Dog," better to stay home and rent it instead; somewhere in between the two movies, a lot of the laughter faded away.

A dog — a real one, rather than a metaphoric one — plays a key role this time around, too; it's in the movie "Fiercely," produced by Ben (De Niro), and at an early test screening at the start of "What Just Happened," it gets shot. Audience members watching "Fiercely" walk out, or scribble vicious denunciations on their comment cards — nobody can handle the idea of a dog being shot. (It rings very true — and should play much funnier — that nobody has a problem with people in the movie being shot.) Just two weeks before the Cannes Film Festival, Ben must persuade his self-consciously edgy director (Michael Wincott) to change the film; appease a hard-nosed studio chief (Catherine Keener); interpret the actions of his on-again/off-again ex-wife, Kelly (Robin Wright Penn); fend off a screenwriter pal who's constantly pushing a new project at him (it's a script about a florist — "Rose Bowl Parade meets da Vinci Code!"); and persuade Bruce Willis to shave his beard.

This is probably a reasonably accurate idea of what Hollywood producers do with their time, and the strong cast keeps it interesting. Keener's unflappable exec has a smile as tight as a starlet's red-carpet gown; when the director throws a tantrum that causes a rainbow of M&Ms to fly through the air, she doesn't even flinch. Willis, in a beard that makes him look like an irritated walrus, and Sean Penn have fun playing sent-up versions of themselves. And De Niro, who's made way too many lousy movies in the current decade, loosens up here and makes Ben a likable fall guy.

"What Just Happened" is no hardship to watch, particularly for those drawn to Hollywood satire (though Robert Altman's "The Player" did it better, not to mention the glee and bite of "Wag the Dog"); it's just that it's never as funny as it would like to be. The texting and cellphone jokes (horrors — an agent texts at a funeral!) already feel a little late to the party; even the title of "Fiercely" feels not quite there. (Much better is a title we see just for a second, at the same multiplex: "East of Hell.") So, what just happened? A movie that's perfectly good, and yet not good enough.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725

or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com