Rules Don't Apply

First Hit:  I was left wanting because I wanted this film to be insightful about the secret world of Howard Hughes, a powerful, interesting, and enigmatic figure of my youth.

The name “Howard Hughes” billionaire, held its own fascination to me during the late 1950’s – 1960’s. In Southern California, where I grew up, the name Hughes Aircraft labeled a number of buildings in and around the Glendale and El Segundo areas. The Hughes Aircraft Company was a subsidiary of Hughes Tool Company, which his father started, was headquartered in Texas and because of his father’s early death, he inherited the business when he was just eighteen years old.

With drive and vision, this wealth allowed him to create the airline company TWA (Trans World Airlines) out of Transcontinental and Western Air. He also bought hotels in Las Vegas (The Sands, Castaways, Landmark, Frontier, Silver Slipper and Desert Inn). He also got involved in Media and specifically for this film RKO Pictures.

The film opens with Levar Mathis (Matthew Broderick) and Nadine Henley (Candice Bergen) anxiously trying to get Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) to, via telephone, address a group of reporters. The reason is that in this public press conference, Hughes is expected to answer reporter’s questions to disprove and debunk a book stating that Hughes is now insane and needs to be institutionalized.

The movie rolls back in time 5 years and we meet Marla Mabry (Lily Collins) and her mother Lucy (Annette Bening) who are coming to LA from Virginia for Marla to meet Howard and have a screen test for a film Hughes was going to make with her as the star. They are met by Hughes’ driver Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich) and there is an immediate spark between Marla and Frank. However, Frank is forbidden by Howard’s rules as explained to him feverishly by Levar, that he will be fired if he fraternizes, in any way, with any of Hughes actresses.

As the film makes its way to the press conference, we learn about Howard's quirks with people and things. He likes Banana Nut ice cream one moment, and Vanilla the next. We see bankers waiting for hours in a bungalow at the Beverly Hilton just to meet and see Howard before giving him $400+ million dollars. Hughes of course is in nearby bungalow but prefers to speak with them via phone.

We watch him and Frank gaze at the Spruce Goose which the Army commissioned to build but thinks it won’t fly. But Hughes flies the plane one time to prove its feasibility, then decommissions the plane. Watching a film of the flight, you hear Howard complain there was no close-up of him flying the plane.

He lives in the shadows of rooms and in the dark. He does most of his business by phone, meanwhile Marla and Frank both try to find personal one-on-one time with Howard so that she can pitch her talents and he can pitch his real estate deal. Along with way, they signal their mutual interest in each other.

I was fascinated with what Howard would say or come up with next. But what didn’t work for me was not getting more about the very odd story of Hughes. I thought the love story of Marla and Frank was rather tepid. However, the redemption of the latter arrives at the end of the film, but it wasn’t what I was interested in. I wanted more about Howard Hughes a childhood fascination of mine.

I did like the film’s time-period and the views of Hollywood, LA and Las Vegas were engagingly wonderful. The attention to details in the rooms and bungalows were great.

Beatty was oddly quirky and strong as a man on the edge of greatness and sanity. He was perfect for this role and did an excellent job of directing himself. Collins was very engaging and good as Maples. Her ability to be sober and drunk and keep the character congruent was virtuous and perfect. Bening, as Marla’s mother was wonderful. Her religious and personal beliefs were perfectly represented. Ehrenreich was wonderful. His intensity and respect for Hughes in their conversations was excellently presented. Martin Sheen as Hughes’ CEO was great. He expressed just the right amount of irritation at the bosses’ behavior and respect for Howard’s accomplishments. Broderick was fun as the sort of chief of staff role he had for Hughes. Bergen was fun and good as Hughes’ secretary and assistant. Beatty wrote a wonderful screenplay but as I said earlier I would have rather had more Hughes and less Maples and Frank, but that is just me. Hughes is what I was interested in. Beatty also did a good job of directing this bigger than life story.

Overall:  I wanted a bigger story about Hughes.

Tower Heist

First Hit:  There are some very strong funny laughs in this totally improbable story.

From the beginning of the film, there are strong laughs, out loud laughs.

Maybe it helped that the woman behind me was fully engaged in her very out-loud amusing laugh at many of the situations. But like her, at times, I found some of this film very funny.

Arthur Shaw (played by Alan Alda) is a Bernie Madoff type character who has been accused of inappropriate use of investor money. “The Towers” where he lives in the penthouse suite which has his pool on the roof and a hundred dollar bill painted on the bottom.

“The Towers” (looking like Trump Tower), has a staff that is there to fully serve the residents. The manager is Josh Kovacs (played by Ben Stiller) who has a staff of willing workers including Charlie (played by Casey Affleck) the concierge, Lester (played by Stephen Henderson) the doorman, and Odessa (played by Gabourey Sidibe) as a chambermaid.

There is also a resident named Mr. Fitzhugh (played by Matthew Broderick). When Shaw is arrested trying to sneak out of the country by FBI special agent Claire Denham (played by Tea Leoni), the staff realizes that all their money, invested by Shaw, is gone. After a suicide attempt by Lester, the staff and Mr. Fitzhugh decide to find the $20 million dollar stash that is believed Shaw has hidden in his penthouse.

Also in the Penthouse is Shaw’s pride possession, a Ferrari once owned by Steve McQueen. The staff, guided by, their expert thief Slide (played by Eddie Murphy) set out to find the $20M only to find more but not in the form they expected.

Stiller is perfect as the controlling, yet flexible, Manager. Alda is beyond perfect as the arrogant financier who thinks he’s getting away with something. Murphy is great as the smart-alecky thief. Affleck is very good as the overly cautious father-to-be, who is only looking to have his baby born healthy. Sidibe is funny in this comedic role. Broderick is more forlorn than usual which fits him. Leoni is very funny as the FBI agent who wants to play by the rule book, gets drunk well, and wants The Tower’s staff to get their just deserts. Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson wrote a funny and impossible story. Brett Ratner did a good job of pulling laughs from the characters and dealing with improbability.

Overall: This film has a great cast, was funny often but what and how they rob Shaw was not realistic.

Wonderful World

First Hit: This film had some promise but its pacing, mediocre story line, and lack of connecting to something tangible let it become less than the promise.

Matthew Broderick plays Ben Singer a guy who seems down, tired of life, and unhappy at how life has presented itself to him.

When we meet him, we see that he smokes a lot of pot, dispassionately works at an office editing scripts, and has little regard for the people he works with. We learn that Ben is an outstanding guitar player and had once created a CD of children songs.

As part of the deal to create this CD he was allowed to create a CD of his more adult songs. The record company indicated that his material was inaccessible and therefore didn't promote the work. Ben has a daughter name Sandra (played by Jodelle Ferland) who lives with her mom and step dad. She seems confused and lonely when she spends time with her unhappy self oriented father.

Ben has a foreign roommate named Ibu (played by Michael K.Williams) who is almost the opposite type person. He's full of life, hope and anticipation that things will go well for him in this new country. Ibu is happy and is also a diabetic. 

One day Ben finds Ibu in an extreme diabetic distress status and has an incident which prevents him from getting Ibu to the hospital quickly. 

Ibu's sister Khadi (played by Sanaa Lathan) comes to tend to her brother and ends up staying with Ben. As they spend time together, Ben begins to open up and be more engaged with life. He starts to fall in love.

Broderick is OK as this forlorn character but there was something missing in his performance which didn't ring true for me. Maybe it was how easily he appeared to give up, but mostly it was that I didn't see or understand the reasons why he spent most all of his time stoned and in a haze. Lathan is wonderful as Ibu's sister and she fully emanates the joy of her beliefs. Ferland, as Broderick's daughter, was very, very good. I was impressed with her expressions of sadness, confusion, and joy (when she dances with Lathan). However, the overall presentation of mediocre material and direction, both by Joshua Goldin, resulted in a flat unfulfilling film.

Overall: This is a quiet afternoon DVD rental as there is nothing really outstanding to see.  

Then She Found Me

First Hit: There are some very funny moments in the film and it was also a well acted dramatic touching story.

Helen Hunt plays April a woman married to Ben (played by Matthew Broderick), a man who just never seemed to grow up.

Helen wants a child so bad but their attempts have been fruitless. Her mother keeps telling her to adopt, there are plenty “of Chinese children looking for a home”. However, April insists on wanting to have the experience of going through childbirth.

April walks into the kitchen one day and Ben says he wants out of the relationship. However, they end up making love one more time. Later that day she meets Frank (played by Colin Firth) whose wife ran out on him, “because he was too much for her”, leaving him to raise both his children. In the parking lot of the school where April works Frank inadvertently comes on to her.

Here the film could have just moseyed along to a predefined conclusion. However life presents challenges: April’s mother dies, then she finds out she was adopted by meeting her birth mother Bernice (played by Bette Midler) who wants to dive right into a relationship with April, discovers she’s pregnant with her to be ex-husband’s child, and is falling in love with Frank all within a couple of weeks.

Again, there could be a smooth ending to this more complicated set-up, however real people get their buttons pushed and this film displays some of these possibilities.

Helen Hunt both acted in and directed this film. She is a wonderful actor and, in her directorial debut, intelligent enough to know how to direct other strong actors, including herself. I loved how the tension in her character was palpable as the film progressed. What surprised me most about this film was complicated and somewhat abrupt set up at the beginning of this story. However, Helen was able to take these pieces and stitch them together with clear direction enticing strong multi-dimensional characters from each of the actors while keeping the story line in focus.

Overall: The film got better and better as it unfolded and in the end it was touching and felt true.