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****
Dir: Warren Beatty (12A, 127 mins)
An indulgent mess of a film, that still mostly entertains but remains unsatisfying and is all the more disappointing as this may be 79-year-old Hollywood legend Warren Beatty’s last film. He plays Howard Hughes, the eccentric millionaire with real mental health issues, here unfortunately mostly played for laughs, who employs new Han Solo Alden Ehrenreich as one of his drivers. He has to drive new starlets around as they try to make it big in 1950s Hollywood, but cannot become romantically involved with them. This is fine until Ehrenreich meets Lily Collins’ Southern wannabe star. Their relationship is more interesting, but the film spends a lot of time following Beatty around in some hammy showboating road movie moments. It’s a scattershot film, packed with famous cameos and great period detail, but offers little of interest about Howard Hughes himself and does not give its romantic comedy duo time to breathe. Narrative rules should have been applied.
Opens March 10