If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't Believe the Hype

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a classic example of a movie that tries to do too much. Essentially what is a simple blackmail scheme, becomes an overcooked box of silly surprises, especially relating to Kim Cattrall's accomplices. While the first third of "Exception to the Rule" is nothing more than a boring seduction of frustrated diamond dealer, Eric McCormack, the convoluted ending is what really drags on the film. Throw in some very choppy editing, a gratuitous strip club scene, the most obviously staged car chase ever, and there are few redeeming factors left. The performances of William Devane, and Kim Cattrall are acceptable, but that's about it. - MERK

Eric McCormack's appearance is the best part of this movie. The plot is weak (gem dealer finds sex elsewhere while his wife is pregnant and finds himself blackmailed in the process for a diamond shipment), the situations unbelievable (Jabba the hut-like private dick follows bad girl Cattrall in a '77 Powder Blue Cadillac thinking he won't be noticed), the production values are terrible (during the lurid -- but thankfully brief -- sex scene between Tim and Carla, a double is used, who might as well be a hirsute Latino...the difference is *that* noticeable; in another shot, Cattrall's double lures Tim's vision by appearing naked several rooms away then, walking off camera and reappearing, manages to "slip" into a tight black mini-dress in like 2.5 seconds!). William Devane is the sympathetic father-in-law when he finds out Tim has cheated on his daughter (odd, that, I would have expected him to *kill* Tim), and Sean Young acts with all the finesse and charm of a maple tree.

Sporting a ridiculous plot with unbelievable twists in the last 20 minutes, EXCEPTION TO THE RULE becomes a bore quickly because the protagonist is quite dumb and you can predict what will happen next during the first 3/4 of the film.Kim Cattrall is stuck with a dumb villainess role, Sean Young phones in her performance (she has so little to do, who can blame her), and William Devane is his usual self. Eric McCormack works waaay too hard at times trying to be intense, and he's not a bundle of leading man charm.

Kim Cattrall, Sean Young & William Devane are all very enjoyable in this movie, and the story is generic but not too bad. Now if only Eric McCormack could act his way out of a paper bag or had half the charm of a dishrag... Any decent actor in the male lead and this movie could have been truly "okay."