Rules Don’t Apply (2016) Review

A very unconventional love story between Marla Mabrey an aspiring actress, her determined driver Frank Forbes and their boss billionaire Howard Hughes.

⭐️

This film really focuses on the later years of Howard Hughes and how he had loads of young aspiring actresses living and working for him. Yes, it was rather creepy and strange by the looks of it. Giving them a place to live in LA, along with a weekly wage and a driver to take them too and from acting classes and events. Just a job it may seem like, but the young women were not allowed to see any men, if they did they would then be sacked. The drivers were not allowed to get involved with the girls either or they would get sacked. This picture is painted well before we get to see Howard Hughes on-screen, it takes a good half an hour before his first appearance. The build up towards that was pretty impressive, probably the only impressive thing about this slow burner of a film though.

During the course of the film not a lot really happens in all honesty, I kept thinking that it would reach a point where I was like oh ok now this is good and interesting. Unfortunately it never actually gets there, what happens in the first about twenty minutes is pretty much the entire film. As with it not fully focusing on Howard Hughes, he then just seems a strange character. Although we do get shown that he was supposed to be losing his mind by this point.

I think that is probably the main problem with the film, it tries to focus on Frank and Marla with a love story. When it never really feels like a love between them, just slight lust that is more awkward than anything else. Although it was nowhere near as awkward as the scenes between Marla and Howard Hughes. The latter giving an awful sex scene, like seriously what was even going on with that, it was so messed up.

Another quite surprising thing is that the film has a big release in the UK considering I was one of 4 people in the screening on Friday when it opened I imagine it will only be on for a week at the most at my local cinema. Oh I also feel I need to mention that two of this people actually walked out. Couldn’t really blame them in all honesty as I wanted to leave as well.

I was wondering as I was watching though how much of it was true and how much of it was just made up. But when the credits eventually started to roll and I saw that Warren Beatty wrote the story, I then realised that it was just all fabricated. I suppose it could be based on rumours and taken some true events and wrapped it into a film? That made it all feel even more pointless as well to be brutally honest. I guess there was a good reason why the film has just opened in the UK now, I was quite surprised to see Lily Collins had been nominated for a Golden Globe for her efforts in it.

A box office bomb in the US and I am sure it will be exactly the same in the UK, don’t worry though as I really don’t think you will have much time to decide on seeing this one or not. I would certainly go for the not, I put myself through this very boring film so you don’t have to!