Review: Rules Don't Apply
Rules Don't Apply, marking the return of actor-writer-producer-director Warren Beatty to the screen after a 15-year-long absence, is a romantic drama that showcases the glorious presences of rising stars Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich to full effect. It is also a sometimes funny, always sad portrait of billionaire Howard Hughes, who pulls people into his gravitational orbit only to test their sanity with his obsessive-compulsive mania.
Hughes is played by Beatty - unsurprising since Beatty has been working on a Hughes biopic for nearly four decades and the parallels between the two run deeper than their shared love of strong, beautiful and intelligent women. Indeed, Beatty feels more exposed here than in any film he's appeared in save for 1991's Bugsy - there's many a moment in the film when one wonders if Beatty is channeling Hughes or channeling himself through the character of Hughes. Which isn't to say that Beatty doesn't fall back on his usual method of hiding behind the character - he definitely does, but there's also a lightness in his playing, an amusement at the way in which Hughes' darker tendencies are protected by his wealth and power that perhaps wouldn't have been as effective had he incarnated Hughes earlier in his career.
It takes almost half an hour before Beatty as Hughes makes an appearance, and that time is utilised to focus on Marla Mabrey (Collins) and Frank Forbes (Ehrenreich), whose personal ambitions are thwarted by the conservative mores of the time and whose professional ambitions are misguidedly dependent on Hughes. Marla is an aspiring actress, newly arrived in Hollywood from Virginia with her mother (Annette Bening). She is one of the many young women that Hughes has invited from all over the country to audition for a role in one of his upcoming movies. The starlets are ensconced in homes like concubines, driven to and from acting classes, and wait around for the mysterious Mr. Hughes to show himself.
Frank is one of the many drivers in Hughes' employ, a pious Methodist with a fiancee back home and hoping that the billionaire will fund his dream of developing affordable housing. Like all of the drivers, Frank is constantly reminded by senior driver Levar (Matthew Broderick) that all of the actresses are off limits and that anyone caught fooling around with them will be fired. That doesn't stop Frank and Marla from being attracted to one another, though their religious devoutness prevents them from doing anything more than gaze lovingly at one another. Hughes himself, once he does emerge from the shadows, becomes a hindrance as Frank is pulled deeper into his self-created universe.
Rules Don't Apply can often be an exasperating film since it is essentially two stories in one and they don't always combine with grace. Yet, whether it be due to Beatty's handling or the charismatic performances from his two leads, both halves somehow work in concert with one another despite the imbalance of attention to the couple's romance once Hughes steps into the spotlight. The production is lovingly rendered with particularly noteworthy contributions from cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, production designer Jeannine Oppewall, and costume designer Albert Wolsky. The film also features a cavalcade of cameos, including Candice Bergen, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, and Ed Harris.
Rules Don't Apply
Directed by: Warren Beatty
Written by: Warren Beatty
Starring: Warren Beatty, Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Haley Bennett, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman, Steve Coogan, Ed Harris, Megan Hilty, Oliver Platt, Martin Sheen, Taissa Farmiga, Paul Sorvino, Amy Madigan
