Synopsis
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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Cast
- Warren BeattyHoward Hughes
- Lily CollinsMarla Mabrey
- Alden EhrenreichFrank Forbes
- Matthew BroderickLevar Mathis
- Annette BeningLucy Mabrey
- Alec BaldwinBob Maheu
- Haley BennettMamie Murphy
- Candice BergenNadine Henly
- Dabney ColemanRaymond Holliday
- Ed HarrisMr. Bransford
Recommendations
- 75
The Playlist
If its somewhat unfocused narrative comes at the cost of a picture that could be more cohesive and concise, it still gifts viewers with characters and an era that’s entertaining to explore. - 75
IndieWire
Beatty’s long-gestating project is a modestly enjoyable, well-acted nostalgia piece with just a touch of edge. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
This is a fitfully funny quasi-farce that takes off promisingly, loses its way mid-flight and comes in for a bumpy but safe landing. - 70
TheWrap
While writer-director Warren Beatty’s movie about Hughes is crafted of the finest materials, it too remains mostly earthbound, defying gravity only in fits and starts. - 67
The Film Stage
If anything it simply reminds us of his onscreen charisma and endearing humor, his handle of Hughes’ descent into eccentricity and insanity proving memorably entertaining. While he’s not the lead, he is the glue. - 60
Variety
Beatty tries hard to re-create the look and feel of late-’50s Hollywood as it existed both on-screen and off, aided by DP Caleb Deschanel and terrific costume and set contributions. And yet, it actually comes off too conservative for its own time, with stiff performances from Collins and Ehrenreich. - 60
The Guardian
It doesn’t make sense as a comedy, it doesn’t quite work as a drama, and it doesn’t follow the typical roadmap of a biopic, but Rules Don’t Apply is strangely compelling nonetheless. - 60
Screen Daily
The romantic comedy-drama Rules Don’t Apply is, by turns, fizzy and melancholy, nostalgic and clear-eyed, but it never builds to anything especially substantial.
