An odd beast of a movie.
If you’re looking for a biopic about Howard Hughes, this is not it. That’s not to say that this set out to be one and fails, it didn’t and it hasn’t, this is more about sex and romance and ambition and the quirky and dirty underbelly of Hollywood than the reclusive tycoon.
Rules Don’t Apply is, at its heart, an unconventional love story about an aspiring actress called Marla Mabrey, played by Lily Collins, her determined driver Frank Forbes, played by Alden Ehrenreich, and the eccentric billionaire who they work for, Howard Hughes, played by Warren Beatty who also wrote and directed the film. All three leads are great fun, deliver very easily watchable performances and are never anything less than excellent but the uneven balance of the film repeatedly fails them.
It’s an odd beast of a movie that sometimes works perfectly and is absolutely enchanting and then at other times just feels leaden and either half-baked or overdone. The story is great, there is some snappy dialogue and some nicely drawn characters and the cast can’t be faulted. It’s an ensemble piece and something of an eclectic tapestry that includes Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Taissa Farmiga, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Oliver Platt, Candice Bergen and the list goes on but unlike directors such as the Coen Brothers, Beatty fails to make it pop and, in most cases, criminally underutilizes them – this does both them and the film a disservice.
Not only that but while the main cast dominated the foreground of the movie, the comparative background is littered with the likes of Paul Sorvino, Patrick Fischler, Dabney Coleman and so on which, while kind of cool, is oddly distracting and slightly bizarre much like Hollywood itself.
Rules Don’t Apply very much takes itself literally and it plays with the structure and focus continually with characters appearing and the disappearing, sometimes for the rest of the movie such as Bening’s motherly turn, and underdeveloped story strands dangling. Beatty as Hughes is flawed and damaged and confused yet strong and rich and complex. He’s also still got a reliable eye for visuals that are stylishly simple but solid.
It is not difficult to see why there is awards buzz circling the movie because when it’s good, it’s great, but the rest of it slouches somewhat rather than crackling as it should. In addition, while most of the performances are on point, not all the casting is, and while some of the lighter comedic moments land well, others fall flat. It is this niggling inconsistency that keeps this film, about an eccentric entrepreneur with an interest in everything from filmmaking to aviation, idling on the ground.
A hugely talented bona fide Hollywood legend, it’s been 15 years since Warren Beatty’s last big screen outing. Although it is great to see him making movies again, while enjoyable, this isn’t his most robust work.
The Verdict
Warren Beatty and his ensemble cast deliver an interesting, but uneven, film that has as many highlights as it has flaws. Sometimes overstuffed and sometimes underdeveloped, it is a curio that means it never becomes a must see movie and instead sits comfortably in the watchable zone.
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