Wo die Liebe hinfällt...

I have to say that the film has it's problems. It's almost like the producer/producers saw films like "Monster in Law" and "Parenthood" or "Father of the Bride" and wanted to capture those funny, madcap and endearing moments and instead didn't quite have the material or dialogue or script to really pull it all off. You think that something funny is coming and the scene ends and just isn't that laugh inducing. I wanted to laugh-but it just wasn't funny.

Also, I don't know if I buy into the story. At the end of The Graduate Elaine and Ben run to the street and catch a public bus taking them from Elaine's wedding while the guests have been locked in the church by Ben. Would Elaine and Ben have married after that? Maybe not-it would have been very awkward for both families for many years. But I'm not sure Elaine would have dumped Ben nor do I particularly but into this scenario.

Could this have been the outcome for them? Maybe but I don't see it.

There are some funny moments but for the most part this is predictable and flat. Not bad though. I just don't think anyone will watch this and find it hilarious. Some of it is actually kind of sad.

Jennifer Aniston plays Sarah Huttinger, a journalist about to get married to her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) when she's called back to Pasadena for her sister's wedding. There, she meets millionaire playboy Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner) who had relations with both her mother and grandmother, an incident that might have influenced the '60s movie "The Graduate."

"Rumor Has It" is a lackluster film from Jennifer Aniston that fails to take advantage of its interesting premise. The movie had all the right ingredients to be an entertaining ride. Good cast, good director, engaging premise and a talented screenwriter. So, what went wrong? Rob Reiner tried to make a character driven dramedy that just didn't work. The film was not very funny and they recycled the same jokes over and over again. How many jokes about Pasadena can you have in the first twenty minutes? Apparently not enough for Mr. Reiner. The more serious scenes were deathly dull and this has a lot to do with the fact that all the characters were unlikable and uninteresting. The actors all appeared bored on screen and only one person gave a good performance.

Shirley MacLaine gives an engaging and funny performance as Katherine. She saves the movie completely though she doesn't get a lot of screen time. Jennifer Anniston was pretty bland, nothing special from her. That is two flops in a row for her with this and Derailed. Mark Ruffalo was okay, again nothing special. Mena Suvari gave a decent performance but doesn't get a lot of screen time. Kevin Costner was a complete dud. His performance was very mundane and he shared zero chemistry with everyone on screen.

The appeal between Costner and Aniston seemed force and there was nothing interesting about it at all. The scenes with Aniston and Ruffalo were much better and seemed more real. The family aspects of the movie were okay. There were a few engaging scenes like the bedroom scene between Aniston and Suvari. Those two played sisters and their conversation about their mother was nice to watch. Still, they weren't as good as Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette from "In Her Shoes". The ending was expected and a little unbelievable actually. I still don't understand why he took Sarah back considering she cheated on him and her speech seemed really force. In the end, "Rumor Has It" is simply a weak film that's not really worth watching. Rating 5/10

It was fun. This has been panned by many, but heck, it's not supposed to be Shakespeare. It has a great cast -- Shirley McLaine and Kevin Costner have a great scene together. I liked Jennifer Aniston -- especially in the blue dress. Mark Ruffalo was the nice guy. I laughed a lot. It wasn't all fluff, either. I thought the characters grew a little. Jennifer and her sister and father grew closer. I think if you saw the original The Graduate, this movie might be more interesting to you. There were some great shots of Pasadena and the California coast. Definitely is a chick-flick. I went with a girl friend of mine and we both enjoyed it.

'Rumor Has It' pretty much has all the technical ingredients: Good actors, interesting premise (a girl trying to find herself), excellent cinematography, breathtaking shots of America and a nice score. However, it's let down by the writing and direction. For a comedy, it's not so funny. Many of the jokes fall flat. For a drama, it just doesn't engage and a lot of it looks forced. The movie derails every now and then and the whole 'romantic' angle between Costner's Beau and Aniston's Sarah feels icky and looks unconvincing. Jennifer Aniston is in a confused Rachel Green mode (except here her character is not likable and she's a little too whiny). Mark Ruffalo does a decent job as the supportive boyfriend and shares a good chemistry with Aniston. Their scenes in the beginning are quite fun to watch. It's just the last scene that was a little less believable as Jeff seems to have forgiven Sarah too easily. Kevin Costner seems sleazy (when the character wasn't really meant to appear that way) and he and Aniston seem to lack chemistry. Mena Suvari has a pointless and thankless role. The last scene between her and Aniston just seemed ...well, forced. However, it is Shirley MacLaine who delivers the best performance. She provides all the laugh out loud moments but her role is too small to be the saving grace. Simply put, 'Rumor Has It' is a weak and confused film.

This is the kind of movie that just pisses me off to no end because it has so much potential, but somehow it comes off as exceedingly mediocre. Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who discovers her family was the model for the novel and film The Graduate. She never saw how she fit in with her family, so she wonders if maybe the model for Benjamin, a rich man named Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), is her real father. She's wrong, but in the process of this discovery, she ends up sleeping with the man, thus continuing the tradition of her mother (deceased) and grandmother (played here by Shirley MacLaine). This in turn ruins her relationship with her loving fiancé (Mark Ruffalo). I remember seeing the trailer last fall and thinking, "This is a great idea." I laughed pretty much constantly during that preview. Unfortunately, it contains most of the film's best moments. The actual film is more of a romance (or perhaps a better term would be "chick flick") than a comedy. It gets somewhat sappy, and the whole thing lumbers on and his never very strong. This is especially annoying, as all the actors are actually very good. Aniston proves once again that she is a very good actress (if only she could land some great material). Costner gives his second excellent performance of the year (I thought his performance in The Upside of Anger was perhaps the year's best performance from an actor). He was so mediocre earlier on, it's kind of cool to see that maybe he is just now hitting his peak. Mark Ruffalo is very funny, as is Mena Suvari, who plays Aniston's younger sister. And MacLaine's role is absolutely golden. She also had a very good performance elsewhere in '05 (In Her Shoes), but she has even more to do here and she flexes her comic muscles. With all that goodness, it really pains me that it's so hard to muster any enthusiasm for this somewhat lame film!