Jack, Ann, Lucy, and I enjoyed aspects of this uneven, fictional story about Howard Hughes, a wannabe starlet, and her driver who is Hughes' employee. First the good news: the photography, production design, and picture cars are magnificent, the wardrobe is fun, and the acting mostly good. But the movie veers wildly between comedy and melodrama. Watching the credits in their entirety as we always do, Jack and I noticed that there were four editors. Perhaps that was one problem.
Then we have the auteur issue. Warren Beatty (directed and starred in Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981) which won him an Oscar, Dick Tracy (1990), and Bulworth (1998); now 79, he's been acting since 1957 and some of my favorites are the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and movies Splendor in the Grass (1961), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1967), Shampoo (1975), Ishtar (1987) (yes, I did like it even though it's one of Hollywood's biggest failures), Bugsy (1991), and Town & Country (2001)) may have been able to produce, write, direct, and star successfully in the four pictures named above, but this one is not sure what it is. The acting I liked the best in this group came from Annette Bening (last blogged for Danny Collins, she is Beatty's real-life wife) as the starlet's mother and Alden Ehrenreich (the dumb guy in Hail, Caesar!) as the driver. Beatty is playing heavily into Hughes' eccentricities and hams it up quite a bit. Lily Collins (daughter of Phil, she was in The Blind Side) annoyed me--though perhaps her character the starlet is supposed to be that way--and her singing is off-key in the bridge (however my three movie-mates had no problem with her delivery) of the title track. I was frustrated that Megan Hilty, who has played Glinda in Wicked on Broadway, starred in the musical series Smash, and is a terrific singer, gets about three notes out before her scene cuts away (darn editors!) and I really, really wanted to hear her interpretation of the title track over the credits instead of Collins's.
An impressive number of big-time stars have cameos, including Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin, Dabney Coleman, and Steve Coogan as a flight instructor.
As noted above, the look of this picture alone is worth the price of admission. Caleb Deschanel (Oscar-nominated for The Right Stuff (1983), The Natural (1984), Fly Away Home (1996), The Patriot (2000), and The Passion of the Christ (2004), he also shot Hope Floats (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), My Sister's Keeper, and Killer Joe, among many others) brings us the beautiful images, as well as production designer Jeannine Oppewall, set decorator Nancy Haigh, and costume designer Albert Wolsky.
To hear the song go to this link and choose the video with the picture of the brunette in the white dress. There are plenty of great songs performed by other people, listed here, and no original score.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 57%, and its audiences at 47%, are in line with us this time. That said, the movie finished 12th in the nation's box office its first weekend. If you don't see many, this probably isn't the one for you.
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