Good Movies Forgotten: 'Breaking All the Rules'

In Shakespeare in Love, the theater director Henslowe, played by Geoffrey Rush, described a successful comedy as romance and a bit with a dog. Jamie Foxx's Breakin' All The Rules contains both. It’s a smart, funny romance and has a bit with a dog, more than one bit in fact. It may not be Shakspeare but as romantic comedies go this is one of the better ones of the past few years.

Jamie Foxx stars as Quincy Watson, an editor at one of those FHM-style men’s magazines. Quincy is about to announce his engagement to Helen (Bianca Lawson) until she breaks up with him to run off to Paris with his best man. Things actually manage to get worse for Quincy when a work assignment from his new boss (Peter Macnicol) turns into Quincy having to fire a portion of the staff. Rather than go through with the firings, Quincy quits and heads home to sulk.

Weeks pass when Quincy's cousin Evan (Morris Chestnutt) finds Quincy at home in his ex-girl’s ratty bathrobe mumbling about his breakup and what he calls 'The Plan.’ Quincy has taken what he learned from almost having to fire people at work and applied that to a system of how to break up with your significant other in a way that is scientific and efficient. With Evan and his former boss' help, ‘The Plan’ becomes a bestseller called "The Breakup Handbook" and Quincy is finally out of his bathrobe and somehow being a breakup expert has helped his love life.

With his newfound expert status, Quincy is constantly being hit up for advice. Both his cousin and his boss are taking tips from Quincy on how to dump their respective girlfriends. For Evan, it's Nikki (Gabrielle Union) whom he is trying to dump before she can dump him, or so he thinks. For the boss it's a gold-digging man-eater named Rita (Jennifer Esposito) who he believes is after his money and is on to his attempt to break-up with her. Through a series of misconceptions and mistaken identities, Quincy and Nikki get together and other surprisingly witty complications arise.

Writer-Director Daniel Taplitz shows a deft comic touch to both his script and direction. Watch the way Taplitz fills every extraneous scene with a good joke, not merely a throwaway but a good, solid joke. The film does not have an original premise, it's beholden to the conventions and cliches of the typical romantic comedy. However, Taplitz develops his movie logic, incorporating the various “only in a movie” coincidences, and then improves on those typical constructs with smart, committed characters and actors with just the right mix of charisma and believability.

It also helps that each of the six main actors and actresses are just plain funny. Jamie Foxx gets better and better with every role he plays, be it drama or comedy. Gabrielle Union is not only beautiful but has a light comic touch that is so natural it almost seems entirely improvised. Foxx and Union have a great chemistry and are terrifically funny together.

The supporting cast is equally good, especially Peter Macnicol who brings back fond memories of his quirky role on Ally McBeal. Morris Chestnutt is also quite good though by 2004 he'd worn out the playboy trope. His roguish, commitment-phobe by then was already becoming a little too familiar. Last but not least, the best supporting role may actually belong to the tiny pug well featured in the trailer of the film.

The film isn't perfect, it wraps up a little too tidily and cuts a corner here and there. Who gets a book from a hand-written page to bestseller status in less than 6 months? Instances such as that are easily forgiven because everything else works so well. One issue that doesn’t go away though is the title, which is truly awful and absolutely meaningless. The reason I am the only person who remembers this movie fondly is that title.

In a genre that by 2004 had, for many, run its course, Daniel Taplitz and his terrific cast found a way to refresh the well known elements with smart characters and good jokes. With spirit and wit, Breakin' All The Rules broke the manufactured feel of the romantic comedy genre and managed to romantic comedy funny again.

So, why have most movie lovers forgotten this little gem of a romantic comedy? I blame the title. Breaking All the Rules makes logical sense for the plot but it is lengthy and forgettable. A better title might have been The Break Up Handbook. It's snappy and central to the premise of the film. Of course, it's a little late for that suggestion. Let this review be the reminder for you that Breaking All the Rules isn't as generic or lengthy as its title. Instead, it's quite a funny, clever and genuinely romantic comedy that doesn't deserve to be so completely forgotten.