Like other tales of old Hollywood, this one is full of tantalizing nuggets ... Hudson seems fundamentally unresolved. This seeming lack of resolution—in life and onscreen—poses a problem for a biographer even as it makes him compelling on film whenever a script leaves room for any ambiguity.
... a definitive biography, one that effectively toggles between gleeful gossip-dishing (as befits Hudson’s era of film-world glitz) and a genuine affection and admiration for the man behind the screen presence ... The book gradually takes on a repetitive rhythm: the requisite plot synopsis of Hudson’s next film, followed by a pre-Tinder profile of his latest boy toy. The author’s tone is a little too chummy; more often than not, Hudson is referred to as 'Rock.' But Griffin’s biography finds its deeper meaning when his subject, long past his top-billing days and working in a supporting role on the prime-time soap opera 'Dynasty,' attends a state dinner at the White House in 1984 [and the AIDS epidemic becomes the focus].
Hudson remains an enigma throughout these pages. Griffin spends a lot of time plodding through the synopses of long-forgotten potboilers. His subject’s private life is glimpsed in fleeting long shots ... It’s typical of this he-said-she-said biography that hardly anyone — including his now-dead wife — seems able to agree on what was going on.
