Rumor Has It...

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!

There are moments in this inconsequential 2005 comedy when I can see a bright future for Jennifer Aniston's light comedic talents, even though this movie does not stretch her much beyond her likeably insecure "Friends" persona. She plays Sarah Huttinger, a likeably insecure New York Times obituary writer going home to Pasadena to attend her younger sister Annie's wedding. Sarah is picture-pretty, 33 and engaged to a nice, unflappable guy named Jeff who accompanies her. At the same time, she's unhappy about her career and wondering why she always feels out-of-sorts with her well-to-do family. A ray of light comes from her only kindred spirit in the family, her feisty, tart-tongued grandmother Katherine, who tells Sarah about her late mother's pre-wedding tryst in Mexico that gives rise to questions about Sarah's paternity.

All the domestic shenanigans that ensue would probably be enough to fill this comedy's blessedly brief 96-minute running time, but screenwriter Ted Griffin hangs it all on the idea that Sarah's family may have been the inspiration for the Robinsons in Charles Webb's 1963 novel, "The Graduate", which of course, is the basis of Mike Nichols' classic 1967 movie. The tie-in must have sounded like a creative idea on paper, but something happened on the way to the screen that has taken most of the comic invention out of it. In fact, there is a pervasive lethargy throughout this movie, and director Rob Reiner is unable to overcome it because Sarah's dilemma of choosing between adventure and predictability never feels that emotionally resonant. The dialogue never feels sharp, perceptive or funny enough to pull off the inevitable comparisons with the earlier film. Moreover, the story is set rather arbitrarily in 1997 to make the timelines make sense with the stars' ages.

Beyond Aniston, a strong cast has been set adrift. Playing Katherine like an even more embittered variation on Aurora Greenway, Shirley MacLaine crackles with aplomb as the possible inspiration for Mrs. Robinson, even when her lines are not as snappy as she thinks they are. As the aging but still magnetic Benjamin Braddock doppelganger, a high-tech mogul named Beau Burroughs, an overly sedate Kevin Costner barely registers in a smallish role. When he does, there is an insinuating, almost creepy quality in the way Beau's relationship with Sarah evolves. Until the end, Mark Ruffalo has little to do as Jeff but wait patiently for Sarah to resolve her personal dilemma. Richard Jenkins and Mena Suvari have even less time to make an impression in the underwritten roles of Sarah's passive father and bubbly sister, respectively. The 2006 DVD provides the original theatrical trailer (which gives away most of the plot) as its sole extra.

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.

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

I like to have an idea of what the public thinks about a movie before i go and see it. This movie in particular definitely wasn't bad like people were saying. I really enjoyed it and I don't know If i can agree with what people have been saying about the movie. Its not every day I go out and see a movie like this, so it was something different for me. I do recommend the movie to people to see. After the countless love stories and such, I was starting to lose hope that there was a movie out there that could keep my interest. I was surprised by this movie and enjoyed it all the way through. It was a story that really hasn't been driven into the ground like so many recent movies. I like the twists and turns in the movie and I have always enjoyed Kevin Costner and Jennifer Aniston. It was a different sort of combination that really hit the spot.