Rules Don't Apply

2016
5.7| 2h7m| PG-13| en
Details

It's Hollywood, 1958. Small town beauty queen and devout Baptist virgin Marla Mabrey, under contract to the infamous Howard Hughes, arrives in Los Angeles. At the airport, she meets her driver Frank Forbes, who is engaged to be married to his seventh grade sweetheart and is a deeply religious Methodist. Their instant attraction not only puts their religious convictions to the test, but also defies Hughes' number one rule: No employee is allowed to have any relationship whatsoever with a contract actress. Hughes' behavior intersects with Marla and Frank in very separate and unexpected ways, and as they are drawn deeper into his bizarre world, their values are challenged and their lives are changed.

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Reviews

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.
SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped
Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
peterquennell Mostly not about the familiar tale of Howard Hughes, really more about the chaos that the super-rich too often rain on those dogged souls around them. Nice writing, great dialogue, a real roller-coaster. A situation is created in the first few minutes, and another at the one-hour mark, that are exceptionally well resolved in the last 15 minutes. That final arc, very cleverly plotted, with its perfect dialogue, every single word of it, and four slowly growing realizations, has had me watching it on the recorder half a dozen times. A small marvel. Great to see Alec Baldwin and Ed Harris in small parts and Matthew Broderick in a bigger part. I've seen all three repeatedly on Broadway in some of the funnier roles created - Broderick in The Foreigner was THE funniest I've seen, period. Also Taissa Farmiga, recently very funny on Broadway (with Ed Harris) and almost unrecognizable here.Thanks to Warren Beatty's kind writing, Alden Ehrenchreich and especially Lily Collins are the real stars of this movie.They have the most screen-time and some impressively funny scenes, sad scenes, confused scenes, angry and mistrustful scenes, and (surprise surprise) in-love scenes.Both have shown themselves wide-ranging previously in other roles. Alden Ehrenchreich really handled well the magic addressed against him in Beautiful Creatures.Lily Collins (daughter of Phil Collins) as a fiery princess acted Julia Roberts and Nathan Lane into the shade in Mirror Mirror - her training to become a dwarf warrior is another scene worth multiple re-watches.Her dark-eyed even look and confident voice and general lack of any fear have reminded some of a young Natalie Wood or Elizabeth Taylor. She would be so right if anyone ever makes another Ivanhoe. Especially a funny one.
gradyharp Warren Beatty wrote the screenplay for his own story (with Bo Goldman), stars in and directs this parody of the life of the very strange and very successful Howard Hughes. Though pieced together like a changing puzzle the film works, largely to a fine starring role for Beatty and a supporting cast that is up to his caliber.As the official synopsis states, 'An aspiring young actress (Lily Collins) and her ambitious young driver (Alden Ehrenreich) struggle hopefully with the absurd eccentricities of the wildly unpredictable billionaire, Howard Hughes, (Warren Beatty) for whom they work. It's Hollywood, 1958. Small town beauty queen, songwriter, and devout Baptist virgin Marla Mabrey (Collins), under contract to the infamous Howard Hughes (Beatty), arrives in Los Angeles. At the airport, she meets her driver Frank Forbes (Ehrenreich), who is engaged to be married to his 7th grade sweetheart and is a deeply religious Methodist. Their instant attraction not only puts their religious convictions to the test, but also defies Hughes' #1 rule: no employee is allowed to have any relationship whatsoever with a contract actress. Hughes' behavior intersects with Marla and Frank in very separate and unexpected ways, and as they are drawn deeper into his bizarre world, their values are challenged and their lives are changed.'Add to this a kaleidoscope of famous actors in secondary as well as bit roles – Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, Annette Benning, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin, Dabney Coleman, and more – and the film becomes a play about Hollywood – in a good way. Not a great movie but an entertaining one.
Tony Carter This film of a relationship set against the influence of a disordered billionaire is engaging partly for the reason that it is not obvious exactly where it is going, but ultimately its treatment of the viewer jars.There are a number of strange moments seemingly designed to confuse the viewer, such as the implication someone is having an abortion... and then the next time we see them with their young child. Or the firing of one person who reappears without explanation in the same role a couple of scenes later. Or when a character has arranged to marry someone, and in the next scene it is announced by a third party they have married a different person. Please... this is a bad habit whether postmodern or not. Stop it.This film managed to burn through a significant amount of the goodwill it accrued, with a confusing extended whirlwind sequence related to the business tribulations of Mr. Hughes, seemingly delighting in bewildering the viewer. It made me wonder if this mischievousness suspiciously like contempt was part of the reason Mr. Beatty had not made a Hollywood film in so many years.Perhaps the truth is more simply that the film is a car-crash of editing by someone who shouldn't really be doing it. The ironic fact could have been the film would have done better with a little bit less cutting... or a little bit more! The business backdrop could have been attempted with more conviction or selectively cut whilst still making sense of the film.It's curious that none of the characters is really complete or without flaws. The girl protagonist is a fish out of water who can write songs but can hardly sing, and is trying to make a career as an actress without being able to act. Hughes is one step away from barking at the moon. And the romantic young suitor is less than charismatic or worldly, who needs to be told that baptists "are afraid of sex because it leads to dancing".A shame that the film did not manage to carry the viewer all the way through to the end and let them down instead. Hughes' antics making passengers suffer in the DC airliner turned out rather a metaphor for the film itself.
Reno Rangan I kind of felt deja vu. I don't remember the title, but it was similar to this from the recent time, where it revolves around a taxi driver and a woman who wanted to be an actress. In this the distinct feature was the Beatty's role. After returning from the retirement, he's in business now. Directing it, as well as in one of the prominent characters. An 80 years old and still has left lots of spark in him. It was really a great comeback, yet the film is not fully convincing. Even though an enjoyable one, particularly for the awesome performances by all.The film was about Howard Hughes, but I don't know whether it is a biopic or just inspired by. Anyway, it was in the backdrop of Hollywood film industry. The story takes place between three characters, including a driver, film director and a wanted to be an actress. Triangular romance, but not exactly a romance film. Everything was drama, on the struggles between their professions. Often the narration jumps off to Hughes other business affairs. Overall, it comes back to the original path and takes us to the conclusion.A very slow screenplay. I'm used to such kind of narration, so I did not find any hard to finish it off. But it won't be same for others, especially if you are not interested in what the film plot deals with. And it is over two hours long. It covered everything it wanted to tell us. They should have avoided them, to make the film a bit quick which would have worked in its favour. Beatty is a very conscious man. Look at the Oscars, he knew the error, but while having a doubt, his partner hurried and announced the winner. I hope he makes another film very soon and stun everybody who criticised this one.5/10