Warren Beatty has remained one of the biggest names in Hollywood despite his lack of output in recent years. Rules Don’t Apply is the first film he has appeared in since the maligned Town & Country in 2001, and the first he has directed in nearly 20 years.
Set mostly in 1958, Marla Mayberry (Lily Collins) arrives in Hollywood to be one of Howard Hughes’ (Beatty) contracted actresses. She becomes frustrated at not being given any opportunities to act and falls in love with her driver Frank Forbes (Aldon Ehrenreich). However, Hughes forbids relationships between his employees and their chances of being together look doomed, whilst Hughes’ mental health is clearly starting to fail.
Despite the addition of the fictional characters Marla and Frank, anything about Hughes is inherently interesting and the glimpses we get of Hollywood of this era, and the billionaire’s business dealings are intriguing too. There are also a number of laugh out loud moments, especially the scenes with a frustrated Oliver Platt’s executive as he tries to get a face-to-face meeting with Hughes, and Steve Coogan appears as a British pilot to hilarious effect.
Platt and Coogan’s appearances are brief, as are those of a plethora of talented performers such as Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, and Haley Bennett. It seems a shame to have given parts to them, only to barely use them, especially with the problems with the performances at the centre of the film. Collins looks beautiful, and is very good in the first half of the film as the innocent newcomer as well as funny when she drunkenly meets Hughes. Her character changes after that encounter, and Collins can’t quite pull that change off. The bigger issue though is Ehrenreich. He was great in Hail Caesar last year, but he is so wooden here. Sure, he’s a good looking guy, but it never makes sense why Collins would fall for him as he lacks any charisma, and she is in a town full of guys with plenty of that!
After thoroughly enjoying the first part of this movie, I was ultimately disappointed as the second half runs out of steam. There is talk that this will be Beatty’s last film, which would be a shame as, despite moments of brilliance, it can’t ultimately be considered a success, and to millions of people he will be remembered more as the bloke who read out the wrong winner at the Oscars this year.
Rating: 6 out of 10