The films that actors make before their big break can provide an interesting insight to the projects they’re inherently attracted to. It can also drudge up skeletons that an actor wishes would have remained buried. For Bradley Cooper that particular film is Bending All the Rules a shoddily made little independent film about a woman redefining sexual expectations by insisting on maintaining two, non-committal relationships with two men of different ideologies and socioeconomic expectations. The cast is populated with some outrageously poor performances (especially from the childhood incarnation of the protagonist) and the writing is that unique brand of film school self-indulgence that results in unnatural speech patterns, longwinded conversations of artificial depth, and cloying stabs at sentimentality through expositional flashbacks.
Kenna (Colleen Porch) has an agreement with both Jeff (Bradley Cooper), a bartending public radio DJ, and Martin (David Gail), an up-and-coming executive, that they never get too serious or needy in their relationships. While at first both men enjoy her company and the sex that comes with it, they both begin to sour on the deal as envy rears its ugly head. As the two men complicate her life, her photography career attracts the unwanted attention of her absentee mother.
It’s easy to see how Cooper rose above these humble origins, but as is the film is a miserable example of filmmaking. The audio is uneven and even distorts at times, while the actors, especially the children in the bunch, struggle to inject their roles with any emotion at all.
DVD Bonus Features
Just a bunch of trailers.
"Bending All the Rules" is on sale June 21, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy, Drama. Directed by Morgan Klein, Peter Knight. Written by Peter Knight, Morgan Klein. Starring Bradley Cooper, Colleen Porch, David Gail.
