Title: Bending All the Rules
Directors: Morgan Klein and Peter Knight
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Colleen Porch (‘Transformers’), David Gail (TV’s ‘ER’)
Bending all the rules is supposed to reference the gender stereotypes lead character Kenna (played by Colleen Porch) is supposed to break in the new Lionsgate DVD of the same name. However, despite featuring Bradley Cooper in one of his earliest lead roles, ‘Bending All the Rules’ fails to live up to its potential and use the fan favorite actor to its advantage. The movie smashes all the characteristics of comedies that make them successful, including funny characters and humorous situations, to largely focus on the fact that Kenna’s the one who’s afraid of commitment, instead of the men in her life.
‘Bending All the Rules’ follows Kenna, an ambitious woman determined to achieve her goal of leaving her job as a cocktail waitress to become a successful photographer. Between her career objective and the hurt she still feels from her mother leaving her when she was a child, Kenna has no desire to start a committed romantic relationship. She lets the two men she’s casually dating at the same time, aspiring DJ Jeff (portrayed by Cooper) and businessman Martin (played by David Gail), know this when she starts the relationships. Despite the fact that Jeff and Martin both know about each other and Kenna’s fear of commitment, the two men both compete with each other to win her sole attention.
The movie, which was filmed in 2002 but wasn’t released onto DVD until June 2011, is typical of the many women-take-charge comedies of the early 2000’s. The purpose of ‘Bending All the Rules’ was to show that women don’t need to follow the standard expectations placed on them by society; their careers can be more satisfying and fulfilling than a committed relationship. But directors and writers Morgan Klein and Peter Knight did little to create diverse characters who matured throughout the course of a developed storyline with defined conflicts. Kenna just keeps reiterating throughout the whole film that she doesn’t want to become serious with either Jeff or Martin until she starts selling photographs, but she spends more time fighting off their advances than actually trying to reach her professional goals.
The main characters in ‘Bending All the Rules,’ particularly Porch and Gail, unfortunately fail to bring any interest to the already undistinctive plot-line. While the two do make it seem as though their characters do want the things they say they want, neither actor is very convincing; they just seem to be reiterating their lines, and don’t understand the reasoning behind their characters’ actions and feelings. For example, when Kenna is remembering her mother leaving when she was a child, Porch doesn’t seem concerned about questioning why Kenna’s mother left
Cooper’s fans may want to watch ‘Bending All the Rules’ just to see how much the actor has grown. While he doesn’t command as much of a connection to Jeff as he does with some of his more well-known roles, such as Phil in the ‘Hangover’ films, Cooper is still charismatic as the aspiring DJ. The MTV Movie Award nominee showed that Jeff wasn’t afraid to go after what he wanted, no matter what anyone else said. While Kenna kept telling Jeff that she wasn’t ready for a committed relationship, and his mother kept pushing him to look for a serious girlfriend, he kept pursuing her.
‘Bending All the Rules,’ which doesn’t include any bonus features on its DVD, isn’t the greatest effort by any of the actors, but Cooper does steal every scene he’s in with his natural charm. Klein and Knight unfortunately didn’t provide their characters with any truly emotional backstories or extreme, dire conflicts to overcome in order to survive. The movies breaks all the rules of successful comedies: entertaining story-lines with funny characters the audience wishes it could hang out with in real life.
Technical: B-
Story: C
Acting: C+
Overall: C+
Written by: Karen Benardello
