Breaking the Rules was one of those films that slipped in and out of theaters before it could develop a following. If it were not for video I think very few would have seen it and that would have been a pity.
Three childhood chums have gone their separate ways. In fact two of them are downright hostile to each other. The third, Jason Bateman, succeeds in bringing the other two to some kind of a truce and all three take an automobile trip out west. Bateman feels compelled to do it, he's under a deadline literally. He's got a rare and rapidly growing form of leukemia and has little time left.
C. Thomas Howell and Jonathan Silverman play the other two friends, but it's Jason Bateman's touching performance as their dying chum that really drives the film.
Bateman's career was in limbo at the time. He had left The Hogan Family and it would be many years before he got another break in Arrested Development. Had this film been better promoted he might have been doing better a whole lot sooner.
Annie Potts plays the waitress all three pick up on their way to California and she scores well in her role. But it's really a triple buddy picture with a tragic twist.
Catch it if you can when it's broadcast.
