A mess -- all high concept, stranded performances, and no laughs.
Rumor Has It... (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:106
Fresh:21
Rotten:85
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: This riff on The Graduate has a solid cast, but is too lightweight to fully register.
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: With the romantic comedy RUMOR HAS IT, director Rob Reiner (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY) attempts the tricky task of creating a film based on an already celebrated classic, 1967's THE GRADUATE. Starring... With the romantic comedy RUMOR HAS IT, director Rob Reiner (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY) attempts the tricky task of creating a film based on an already celebrated classic, 1967's THE GRADUATE. Starring Dustin Hoffman and based on a novel by Charlie Webb, the original film revolved around the love triangle between a recent college-graduate, his girlfriend, and her famously seductive mother. Here, Reiner casts a chain-smoking Shirley MacLaine as the supposed real-life inspiration for Mrs. Robinson, and Jennifer Aniston as her granddaughter. Set for the most part within the gossipy community of Pasadena, California, the film follows Sarah Huttinger (Aniston) and her fiancé (Mark Ruffalo) as they travel home for her perky sister's (Mena Suvari) wedding. Having nothing in common with her family, Sarah is intrigued upon learning that she may actually be the secret love child of her deceased mother and Beau Borroughs (Kevin Costner), the man whose affairs with both Sarah's mother and grandmother supposedly inspired Charlie Webb, a classmate and friend of Beau, to write THE GRADUATE. From here, Sarah seeks out Beau, interested in him as a father-like figure and possibly more. Aniston brings a Rachel-like (FRIENDS) comic vibe to her character, frequently expressing her neuroses by talking to herself out loud in a sitcom-ish style. Costner is plenty capable in his role, but even with Beau's riches and charm, viewers may find it hard to understand why a young woman would embark on a romance with the same man who bedded her mother and grandmother. Reiner's script veers away from the classic romantic comedy formula by keeping Ruffalo's character at the sidelines. Rather, RUMOR HAS IT focuses on one woman's journey towards adulthood, self-realization, and acceptance of her origins via a path that while strange and potentially incestuous, seems to be family tradition. [More]
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo, Mena Suvari, Kathy Bates, Richard Jenkins, Christopher McDonald, Steve Sandvoss, Mike Vogel
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriter: Ted Griffin
Composer: Marc Shaiman
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for Rumor Has It...
The real weak point is Reiner's listless direction, with too few scenes that almost gel and too many that fall flat.
It serves as a sad reminder about just how much Reiner's filmmaking skills have eroded in the past decade or so.
Jen, poor Jen! Her unfriendly role requires her to act irritable and irritating for most of the footage.
For awhile, the movie gives off an unsettling vibe, as Sarah sort of flirts with a guy who may be her dad. This is eventually explained, but the film takes one more trip to Ickville before it ends.
You don't yearn for The Graduate watching this picture -- you grieve for it, mourning the lost art of its wit, its comedic daring and, above all, its rebellious vision of the human heart.
Ask yourself: is it worth it to sit through a long, horribly told story to get to a nice, simple moral?
turns out to be neither fish nor fowl. It's not funny or lighthearted enough to play as a romantic comedy and it's too shallow to succeed as character-driven drama.
Watching and laughing at the film, you'd never know it was such a troubled production. Here's to you, Mr. Reiner.
A romantic comedy that misfires thanks to a storyline that is far too complicated.
Meathead has apparently forgotten how to shoot anything that isn't a medium-close-up. (These massive headshots might look awesome... on an iPod.)
For a movie purportedly about the truth behind a movie, the mushy Rumor Has It... feels astoundingly false.
Reiner is guilty of either mishandling his material on a grand scale or of not recognizing that the script starts with a dynamite idea but runs dry on page two.
True invention is crushed by Reiner's steamroller direction, and his abilities to capture whatever it was that made Ted Griffin want to write a screenplay like this are lost to cinema heavens.
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