Short films are a brilliant form of story telling unto themselves and Rule Number Three tells its story with minimal words. Set in a pub, British hotties Nicholas Hout and Imogen Poots spell it out for everyone to see as they engage in a coy Scrabble session that reveals more than they bargained for. From an amorous start, the game is a communication tool of revelations that Hoult least expected as Poots shrinks around the truth. Most impressive is the effective skill of the actor's facial expressions and eyes to replace any excessive verbal dialogue. The eyes have it in the most engaging sense as the director frames the attractiveness of both actors whose exposed relationship is made uncomfortably obvious to a family friend who happened on their literal conversational spelling bee. Witty, abbreviated, and well acted, Poots and Hoult are young adults with little to say aloud, yet manage to state their predicament loudly following the Scrabble premise: No Proper Nouns.
Review of Rule Number Three
