Maps To The Stars

David Cronenberg has been lured away from his native Canada, albeit briefly, to take on Bruce Wagner’s caustic script which seeks to explore celebrity culture through over-bearing egos worrying about where their next fix of fame will come from.

It is a playfully dark comedy, which blends elements of murder, pyscho-drama and incest and is not lacking in laugh-out loud exaggeration. As a measured critique of the Hollywood scene it lacks bite and satire.

On the plus side Julianne Moore gives her all as a fading leading lady who is desperately concerned about not being offered a part in a film which in a previous version had been taken by her mother. Moore gives a frank and funny portrayal of female status at a certain age in the Dream Factory.

Some of the best lines go to Evan Bird as a teen prodigy in the Bieber mould who uses his position to be thoroughly obnoxious to everyone, including an upstart rival whom he almost kills. His vapid parents are portrayed by Olivia Williams and John Cusack as a television self-help guru who ministers to Moore’s blowsy star.

Robert Pattinson acquits himself well as an out of work actor who chauffeurs wanabees around town, among them Mia Wasikowska as a mysterious woman who accounces she’s “from Jupiter.” Pattinson is much in demand, not least from Moore’s character, who pins him down for a quick one in the back of the car.

Although there is plenty to relish in the barbed one-liners it doesn’t add up to a satisfying whole – and by the end of it you feel almost as empty as the characters.