Rules Don't Apply (2016)
Writers: Warren Beatty(screenplay)
Cast: Warren Beatty, Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Broderick
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Forty Years ago, actor Warren Beatty had a chance encounter with the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes in the lobby of a Las Vegas hotel. Beatty became fascinated with the strange story of the enigmatic Howard Hughes and decided to make a movie about him, which he finally did four decades later in 2016.
Rules Don't Apply, tells a love story of a young would-be actress who really can't act and has come to Hollywood to be a star. Once in L.A. she is put under contract to the reclusive Howard Hughes. Hughes has a bevy of young starlets, who he sequesters away in bungalows on the hills overlooking L.A. Hughes micro manages their lives and each girl has a driver who's been hired by Hughes with the strict orders not to hit on the girls. In other words Hughes keeps the starlets all to himself, but why?
That premise was the most interesting thing about the movie. What follows is neither clever or worthy of that premise. Rules Don't Apply, is like that - full of promising twist that never go anywhere. Warren Beatty conceived the story premise and wrote the script too... and much like his on screen personality, the script comes across dazed and confused.
Yes, there are some really interesting premises, like the very religious actress and her equally religious mother, who are assigned a religious driver...All of that would seem to be heading towards some juxtaposition between faith in an afterlife and faith in becoming a movie star...but nope nothing really becomes of these false starts.
Even worse, is the near catatonic performance by the chauffeur (Alden Ehrenreich), who drives the starlet around and falls in love with her, thereby breaking the rules aka Rules Don't Apply.
The young starlet Lily Collins was quite good, but she looked to young for the part. Sure the actress is an adult but in the movie she looked 15 and her love scene with the aging Howard Hughes played by a 79 year old Warren Beatty, about made me puke.
Warren Beatty playing Howard Hughes the mentally ill, reclusive billionaire was actually pretty good. I mean lets face it, Warren Beatty often comes across as a space-cadet and that's a perfect fit for Hughes. To bad the script was so boring or this might have worked.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 08-11-17 at 02:02 PM.