A Review by Phil Calabro
2005, Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow, Dir. Rob Reiner - Starring Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo, Richard Jenkins, Christopher McDonald, Steve Sandvoss, Mena Suvari, Mike Vogel, Robert Lanza, Lisa Vachon, Trevor Stock
What a wasted concept, I thought. It's such a shame to watch a great idea like 'Rumor Has It' go to waste when it had potential to tell more than a story. It could've been a second installation into one of America's cultural icons in film. 'The Graduate', directed by Mike Nichols in 1967, is one of the greatest comedies ever written, as it touched on a very sensitive subject with a comedic hand and caution. 'Rumor Has It' delves into the reality of this situation, and follows a trail of family connections and secrets to uncover the mystery behind the infamous movie. But Rob Reiner, in his latest slip of failure, waters down the material and slides the characters back and forth through the viewer's mind. Instead of trying to understand the mystery of 'The Graduate', the feature becomes a modern-day 'Graduate'. Regardless, the movie presents some wonderful performances by Kevin Costner and Shirley MacLaine, but as I watch Jennifer Aniston and her hair try to babble out every one of her lines, I just think, Are you trying to seduce me, Jen? Because it's failing miserably.
Sarah (Aniston) is going back home to Pasadena with her boyfriend Jeff (Ruffalo) to celebrate her little sister Annie's (Suvari) wedding. Going back home is a chore for Sarah, since she doesn't seem to fit in with the family at all. She doesn't act like them, live like them, or look like them. But when Jeff presents the fact that Sarah was born very close to the date of her parent's wedding, she panics. Her mother died when she was a child, so she asks her grandmother Katherine(MacLaine) about the possibility of an affair before the wedding. When grandmother denies it, Sarah learns the terrible truth later on - not only may she have been the product of a potential affair, but her family situation is the basis of the movie 'The Graduate'. So she finds the "Benjamin Bratt" of the whole fiasco, a businessman named Beau Burroughs (Costner) - the man who slept with both her grandmother and mother. Confused about the possible marriage with Jeff, and her recent family revelations, she ends up sleeping with Beau, and has to repair her former relationship again. That was a mouthful.
If there was an Oscar for best actress who scrambled all of her lines and never struck one heartstring, Jennifer Aniston takes the cake. The audience can never get a straightforward word out of her, as she nails another Rachel Green act-alike role. There's nothing more frustrating than watching an actor or actress with no versatility - people want more 'Friends', but it's never a sure-fire decision. Kevin Costner manages to keep his cool in 'Rumor Has It', which is a joy to watch. Never too libertine, Beau Burroughs is a smooth-talking man with plenty of good intentions - he just chooses not to use them all the time. I never felt pressured by Costner, as he let himself settle on the backburner for Aniston's antics, however silly they were. Shirley MacLaine also shows up with a cheeky attitude and a good fashion sense, flaunting her three-quarters-life crisis in Costner's face. As they face off towards the end of the movie, it serves as both an audience's revelation as well as an amusing battle of the sexes. These scenes are more eventful, as they dish up an extra epilogue to the '67 yarn.
But an epilogue isn't possible in writer (and original director, until fired) Ted Griffin's script, since the characters are scattered apart. Jeff, played by Ruffalo, is ignored and taken as a pawn in Sarah's emotions. He is the brick wall that seperates her from Beau, but Griffin could've created more interaction. Shirley MacLaine's character is shoved into the corner for the finale, and several others are as well. A complete cast was Griffin's flaw, as he doesn't seem to care about these characters enough to create a successful drama. Here I was sitting, waiting, and just wishing that there could be more tangents flowing into the soup. But the movie never delivered. This is no longer the clever 'Graduate' story I was hoping for, but a stale love story I've seen before. I have two words to say, just two words: plasticized storyline.
'Rumor Has It...' is another lost game on Rob Reiner's resume. There were so many places I wanted to be in the film, but the writer never took me anywhere. I wanted to learn about grandma Katherine, understand Jeff and Sarah's reunion, but as all romantic comedies go, they can only settle for a happy ending.
