Rules Don’t Apply
Warren Beatty’s belated return to filmmaking isn't worth the wait
Somewhere in Rules Don’t Apply, Warren Beatty’s long-awaited return to filmmaking, there are two good films. One is a romantic comedy about two people (Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins) who fall in love in the 1950s while working for the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes (Beatty), who strictly forbids inter-employee relationships; the other a quirky but layered, fictionalised look at the later years of Hughes’ remarkable, lonely, paranoia-plagued life.
It is a shame that these intriguing concepts are mashed together into one nonsensical plot, each cannibalising the best elements of the other. Ehrenreich and Collins do their best to feed off the scraps but the choppy editing and a conveyor belt of distracting cameos never really give them a chance to breathe life into their lovelorn characters.
Ironically, Beatty’s wonderful performance as the erratic billionaire is the film’s only constant, causing chaos, comedy and pathos in delightfully unpredictable measures. Unfortunately for him, the rules do apply: too little of a good thing is simply not enough.
Rules Don't Apply screens at Glasgow Film Festival: 19 Feb, Cineworld, 8.30pm | 20 Feb, Cineworld, 1pm
Read more about Glasgow Film Festival in The CineSkinny – in print at Glasgow Film Festival venues and online at theskinny.co.uk/film/cineskinny
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