Rules Don't Apply

I'm surprised that Warren Beatty returned to directing after almost 20 years with another film about a disturbed man who is falling apart. Even more, why make another Howard Hughes film? You'd learn more about Hughes by watching the Tommy Lee Jones film or "The Aviator." Mr. Beatty was trying to be contemporary with the editing of the film (4 editors by the way) by cutting away from a scenes abruptly that were starting to get interesting.

The pace of the romance between the two lead characters was uneven and thus hard to believe. The costumes, production design, cinematography and much of the acting was great, but the narrative was confusing. There was a lot of interesting quirkiness and style, but because the point of view was scattered, it was hard to really get to know the characters.

With Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply, there may be some high expectations going in, and it's not because people are looking so forward to finally seeing Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins in a (semi) romantic coupling (though they are equal parts charming and serious in this film, able to go to awkward comic moments and those Big Dramatic Confrontation Moments in ways that are wonderful and surprising and shows they have a good director at the helm).

And it's not even because people may be clamoring for another movie about the genius-cum-iconoclast-cum-megalomaniac Howard Hughes, since, well, we should have practically everything we'd need to see in Scorsese's The Aviator (which, by the way, these two movies share not only a couple of set pieces, at very different time periods in history, but Alec Baldwin too in a fairly important supporting role).

No, I know I expect more of Warren Beatty after an 18 year absence (lets forget Town & Country for now) and the biggest problem is that he had final cut and put something together that is 25% a choppily edited mess. Whether he cut down for time, I'm sure I don't know, though having *four* credited editors is never a great sign.

Having said this, however, it's also a case where the parts are better, more entertaining, more charming, more engaging, more... just MORE than the whole, and one of Beattys underrated gifts as an actor and director - off kilter comic timing and eccentricity - is on excellent display here. It's a genuine if somewhat flawed and all over the place romantic comedy with some genuinely moving overtones for being essentially about... Being kind to people.

If this is his swan song, it could've been worse.

Without a doubt, Howard Hughes was one of the most eccentric and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. A billionaire who went into the movie business, he left his mark on a number of industries. Martin Scorsese focused on part of Hughes's career with "The Aviator". Now Warren Beatty does so with "Rules Don't Apply". This one looks at a relationship between one of Hughes's starlets and her driver in the 1950s. It's not a great movie, but infinitely better than Beatty's last movie, the crime against humanity "Town & Country" (which rivaled Woody Allen's worst movie "Everyone Says I Love You" in being an obnoxious fetishization of neurotic New Yorkers having affairs with each other).

The only thing that drags this movie down is the appearance of two people: Steve Mnuchin (as a banker) and Louise Linton (as a potential starlet). They're now husband and wife. He's Treasury Secretary, while she Instagrammed a photo of herself and tagged the designers, and proceeded to make a let-them-eat-cake remark when a woman criticized her use of a government plane for travel (this was after she published a book purporting to tell of a year that she spent in Zambia, but the entire nation of Zambia disdained it as a promotion of the white savior trope).

Anyway, it's a good movie otherwise. Aside from Beatty, it stars Lily Collins, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman and Ed Harris. To put that another way, it stars Clyde Barrow, Snow White, Carolyn Burnham, Capt. Willard, Jack Ryan, Ferris Bueller, Murphy Brown, a creepy boss and Jackson Pollock.

'RULES DON'T APPLY': Four Stars (Out of Five)

The new comedy-drama-romance from writer/director/star Warren Beatty; Beatty hasn't directed (or written) a film since 1998's 'BULWORTH', and he hasn't starred in a movie since 2001's 'TOWN & COUNTRY'. In this film he plays the very eccentric, and extremely mentally ill, billionaire Howard Hughes. The movie tells the story of an aspiring young actress, and her driver (who both work for Hughes), that begin a forbidden love affair (forbidden by Hughes). Beatty directed the film and co-wrote it, with Bo Goldman (who also co-wrote such epic dramas as'ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST' and 'SCENT OF A WOMAN'). The movie also costars Alden Ehrenreich (the new Han Solo), Lily Collins, Matthew Broderick, Annette Bening, Haley Bennett, Candice Bergen, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt and Martin Sheen. It's received mixed reviews from critics, and it bombed at the Box Office. I liked it though.

Marla Mabrey (Collins) was an aspiring actress, that moved to Hollywood (in 1958) to work for Howard Hughes (Beatty). Mabrey was a devout baptist, from Virginia, that had never done so much as have a drink of alcohol, or engage in premarital sex. She was accompanied by her strict mother, Lucy (Bening). Right away Mabrey and her driver, Frank Forbes (Ehrenreich), are immediately attracted to each other. Frank has a fiancé though, and an affair between the two is strictly prohibited (by their employer, Hughes). Hughes' bizarre quirks, and severe mental struggles, also cause challenges for their relationship.

The movie is pretty interesting, and quite entertaining, at first; then it loses it's way a little, but it does come to a pretty satisfying conclusion. The performances are all good, especially Beatty in the lead; Ehrenreich and Bennett (two very promising up- and-coming actors, that I really like right now) are also good, but severely underused. Beatty's direction is adequate enough, but the script definitely could have used a few more rewrites. I still found the film to be mostly amusing, and somewhat interesting. Howard Hughes was a very fascinating person though, that deserves a much better movie ('THE AVIATOR' was much better).

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I have so much to say about this gem that I'm not sure where to start from. Let me just say that as soon as I heard Gutav Mahler's Adagietto coming out of the Hollywood Bowl while the young virginal couple sit in the car facing the moon, I was transported to Venice, the Venice of Luchino Visconti in Death in Venice. Throughout the film Mahler's Adagietto kept magically coming back so, for me, that's the film. Art and commerce, too much and too little, life and death. Warren Beatty, writer, director, producer also stars as Howard Hughes, a character who's lived in Warren Beatty's mind for decades. He moved me. It was clear why Hughes was a character that could allow Beatty to talk about very personal things without having to do it in first person. - Mia Farrow told Michael Caine between takes in Hannah And Her Sisters: "Woody is telling me things through you" - Here Warren Beatty is telling us things about him through Howard Hughes. A mass of contradictions that can only be explained in the heart and mind of an artist. I'm already a huge fan of Alden Ehrenreich right from Tetro and here he is wonderful, tender and real. Lily Collins is new to me but Annette Bening, well Annette Bening reminded me in her few minutes on the screen that she is one of the greatest actresses we've got. Death in Venice and the last image of Howard Hughes left me with a knot in my throat. I will certainly see it again, just as sure that Rules Don't Apply will be rediscovered in years to come.