Review: Rumor Has It

Posted by: Dean Kish  •  December 25, 2005 @ 11:59am

Filed under: Reviews

This could be the worst Jennifer Aniston movie ever!

Why? Well, let me get to that.

First off, what's it about?

Aniston plays Sarah, a boorish obituary columnist who, while attending her spunky sister's (Mena Suvari) wedding, learns the family secret. What she discovers is that her family was the inspiration for the 1967 film The Graduate, based on the Charles Webb novel.

She also discovers that her father may not be her actual father and that a man (Kevin Costner) who slept with her mother and grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) might be her actual dad. Furthermore, this whole catastrophe might be the breaking point for her relationship with her fiancé (Mark Ruffalo). But she has to get all this sorted out before she can commit to get married herself. What is a spoiled rich girl to do? Furthermore, who cares?

This is probably one of the most boring, superficial, dull, and badly-written comedies I have seen in a long time. That all makes no sense when you have so much talent involved, including an all-star cast and veteran director Rob Reiner at the helm. On paper, this should have been brilliant, especially if you are trying to pay homage to one of the greatest dramedies of all time.

What is incredibly strange about is film is that the whole film feels like it should have been a "black comedy" with a lot of sarcasm and deconstruction of character. Well for that to work, Aniston would have to be interesting in performance and in her character. Also, Costner should be more of an overweight, slimy sleazebag. (Picture Burt Young, Kevin Coster, and Dennis Franz in a blender.)

What we got instead was a film that feels like it was shoved through the meat-grinder known as peppy and perky. Okay, you can stop bouncing now.

I can honestly say that Shirley MacLaine is the only saving grace in this film. The film could have been so much more brilliant if the tone was shifted a lot. What a disaster. (1 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.