It’s been more than a decade since actor-producer-writer-director Warren Beatty stood before a camera (Town & Country) and almost double that since last he looked through a viewfinder (Bulworth). The lure of one notorious playboy starring as equally profligate real-life womanizer Howard Hughes proved to be irresistible. Beatty’s portrayal of Hughes as a befuddled romantic hero shows an actor at the top of his game. It’s when attention strays to a subplot involving juvenile leads Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich that the rules fly out the window. Ehrenreich could be a young DiCaprio in the making, but even the greatest director would find it difficult to fill Collns’s blank slate. Gorgeous to look at thanks to cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and visual effects supervisor John Scheele’s stunning period recreation, but given the plethora of folk lore surrounding Hughes, was there really a need to rely upon fictional characters to advance the plot? Better a goosed Hughes than an unspruced flirtation between bumpkins. (2016) — Scott Marks
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