RULES DON'T APPLY (2016)

Greeted with indifference by a film-going public largely unaware of Howard Hughes or Warren Beatty, this long gestating vanity project with the great procrastinator himself as writer/director/producer/star is less a MISS than a WHY.  Sadly so, since the finished product (in spite of feeling as if it were still undergoing a re-edit as you watch) has a lot going for it.  Charming, funny, melancholy, Beatty mourning the lost Hollywood of his youth.*  (It starts in 1959 when Beatty was appearing on tv in DOBIE GILLIS.)  The basic idea, presumably from Bo Goldman’s original treatment (and bear in mind Goldman hasn’t had an official film credit in two decades) is a passing-of-the-torch story with Beatty as Hughes, the increasingly eccentric billionaire with too much on his plate, including moribund studio RKO, functioning as serendipitous matchmaker to a couple of well-behaved Christian kids in Tinseltown to make good: Lily Collins, dreadful, with Liz Taylor eyebrows; Alden Ehrenreich, a James Dean brooder with an easy charm.  The setup a lot like George Stevens’ THE MORE THE MERRIER/’43.*  But something must have changed during development as the film took in more of Hughes’ rapid decline from eccentricity & paranoia to madness & dementia.  And with Beatty pushing 80, playing a fifty-something Hughes, the dye-job and darkened rooms make his skittish wooing of Collins very uncomfortable.  It may also explain the use of Mahler’s Sym. #5: ‘Adagietto’ as her ‘theme’ music.  And boy!, does he ever lay it on.  Even more than Luchino Visconti did using it in DEATH IN VENICE/’71.  All revealed at the end, with Beatty exposed sans beauty regiment, looking grim and out-of-it.  We’ve been watching DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD.  Along the way, an embarrassment of talent working on indecently small roles except for Matthew Broderick in a gem of a perf.  And if Beatty is his usual uneven self as actor, he does have a sublime moment singing like Al Jolson.  Alas, seeing him briefly throw caution to the winds has the effect of highlighting his many wasted years.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel gets some great ‘60s flavor when not forced to hide Beatty in shadows.  But even Deschanel can’t compete with period shots of LA. & Vegas from back in the day.  (Color by Deluxe®?)  One marquee near Grauman’s Chinese advertises THE KING & I/’56 which is off by three years.

DOUBLE-BILL: For real Howard Hughes insight: Max Ophüls’ CAUGHT/’49; Jonathan Demme’s MELVIN AND HOWARD/’80.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Stevens’ career ended on the flop Warren Beatty/Liz Taylor ONLY GAME IN TOWN/’70.  Also, MERRIER got remade by Beatty idol Cary Grant as WALK DON’T RUN/’66, his last film role, though Beatty tried hard to get him for HEAVEN CAN WAIT/’78.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *Flawed & self-indulgent, Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD/’19 got a lot closer to pulling off what Beatty was trying for.