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Rumor Has It… |
Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures |
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…that a last-minute change of directors turned a could-have-been hit into a film that should have never been made. In Rob Reiner’s latest film, Rumor Has It, a confused woman from Pasadena isn’t allowed to be funny when she is forced to live a WASP’s worst nightmare – her family inspired a Simon and Garfunkle song.
The entire mess starts when Sarah (Jennifer Aniston) and her fiancé Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) fly back to Pasadena for her sister Annie’s (Mena Suvari) wedding. Not long after she arrives home, Sarah discovers her family was the basis for The Graduate, and seeks out Grandma (Shirley McLaine) who confirms the rumors are true. Once she tracks down the “real” Benjamin Braddock (Beau Burroughs played by Kevin Costner), she puts Jeff on a plane to New York, and goes off in search of her other “Beau.”
At this point, Rumor ceases to be a romantic comedy and becomes an identity crisis when Sarah starts to question if Beau is her biological father. As soon as she finds out a soccer mishap has left him sterile, she follows in her mother’s and her grandmother’s footsteps by sleeping with him. Why? I still don’t get it; and, Rob Reiner refuses to develop her character enough to make her even remotely interesting enough to find out why.
The clever premise of Rumor bites the big one because Reiner doesn’t develop anything. Hell, he can’t even decide if he’s directing a comedy or a drama. What little comedy is in the film is saved for Shirley McLaine; but, she isn’t in the film long enough to make it worthwhile. Any character other than Aniston or McLaine does little more than blend in with the furniture; and, by the time the film is over, you are still wondering why all three women slept with Kevin Costner.
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Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures |
Looks like Grandma was right after all: “Life is short. Marriage is longer. So, drink up and it will go a hell of a lot faster.” Damn, if I’d had known that, I would’ve smuggled beer into the theater…maybe then the movie would have gone by faster.
© Kelly Bartley 2006 |
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