Having returned home with her fiancé for her sister's wedding, Sarah (Jennifer Aniston) starts to doubt whether she really is her father's daughter, especially when she discovers that her mother and her grand mother bother had relations with the same man, which was the basis of the book and film The Graduate. Desperate to discover the truth she goes in search of the man, Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner) who may be her father.
►►► Opinion
I first heard about "Rumour Has It" a couple of months before its cinematic release and with a star studded cast which includes Jennifer Anniston, Kevin Costner, Mark Ruffalo and Shirley MacLaine as well as having Rob Reiner at the helm I thought it may have a chance to standing out against the numerous other films in the romantic-comedy genre. Sadly it didn't live up to my expectations, and whilst it is far from being the worst film to have graced the big screen, it is just another average film, which although watch able never really fires on all cylinders. For me this is a great shame as the premise of using the brilliant "The Graduate" as inspiration for a new story lends itself to a huge amount of scope, sadly hugely under worked in "Rumour Has IT"
To be honest the actual plot to the film is pretty good and throws up a few twists, some expected some not, which keeps you interested on what the outcome maybe,
but then you can guess the outcome pretty much from the start. Ignoring the predictability, the attempt at extending the story of "The Graduate" to now encounter a third generation of the same family is indeed very clever and is probably the saving grace of this film. But at the same time, it lacks the intelligence and punch of the original film and that is mainly down to this trying to be a modern romantic-comedy. This issue is caused by the film struggling to decide what it really wants to be, is it a comedy, a romance or a drama, in fact it is a bit of each but the blend fails to work. The comedy at times is masterful, with Ruffalo putting across some great dead pan one liners, but then a lot of the time the comedy is pitiful and so generic that the jokes seem to have been used throughout numerous films and have a bit of the yawn factor about them. The romance, well to be honest what romance, there is no chemistry between any of the stars and the actual romantic element of the plot is seriously under worked, leaving me feeling empty to the feelings of any of the pivotal characters. Then there is the drama, and again the film provides some that actually works leaving me wondering as to what will happen, but then a lot of the drama feels like it has been thrown in as padding to try and make more of a plot which in my opinion really needed some serious re-writing. This Jack of all trades master of none approach leaves the film wanting of one real direction, but despite this it is still watch able and actually grows on you the more times you watch it.
One of my concerns when I saw that Jennifer Aniston was playing the lead was whether this would be yet another film which suffered the curse of "Friends", but thankfully Aniston manages to put in a much better performance than she usually does. The character of Sarah herself is pretty undefined and all we really learn is that she has a fiancé, she differs to the rest of her family in what she likes and is a little bit head strong, other than that the character really has no history. But in the case of this film it doesn't really give us a problem as the way Aniston brings the character to life is much more than is expected. But as mentioned earlier there is a huge problem, that being the lack of chemistry and everyone, including Aniston, seems to be playing their characters in isolation of everyone around them. The same can be said of Costner who despite this issue proves that he can act in a role other than action hero as he does a reasonable job in this "romantic" role. Where my issues do occur is in the performance of Mark Ruffalo as Jeff, Sarah's fiancé, who really doesn't seem to put his heart into it. His acting comes across as wooden and his delivery of lines is at times so monotone, especially in moments of drama, but then for a lot of the film his character is not the focus. But he really is the only major weak link in a film which also sees Shirley MacLaine and Richard Jenkins putting in very enjoyable performances.
Compared to director Rob Reiner's earlier films which include the brilliant "When Harry Met Sally" and the moving "Stand By Me" this really is a bit of a let down. Whilst there are some very nice touches about the film, they are few and far between and if I was truly cynical would say Reiner's heart was never really in it. In some ways I can see what he was trying to achieve with a feel which I would say was similar to that of Nancy Meyer's "Something's Gotta Give" but fails to deliver as many situations of humour or any real empathy with the characters. Another disappointment is a soundtrack which although has some prominent tunes including "Moonlight Serenade" and "Baby, You've Got What It Takes" never really feels in touch with what is happening on the screen.
►►► Film Summary
For a film which possibly could have been one of the best romantic-comedies of recent years it failed to really deliver. It really struggles to decide what it wants to be, a comedy, a romance or a drama and this indecision really causes the film to fail to achieve anything more than just another average rom-com. Saying that, it is watch able despite the problems with an under worked plot, and lack of chemistry between the stars. Whilst it would never be top of my list of films I would recommend to others to watch it is still worth at least one viewing especially for anyone wanting a reasonable film to while away an hour and a half.
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Director: Tony Dow - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: John Challis, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tessa Peake-Jones, Gwyneth Strong
thank you for the review its very good as it has done what it is supposed to! ill have to consider watching this!
brereton66 12.11.2007 14:24
I make a rule of avoiding Aniston's films wherever possible and had not heard of this one at all. So thanks for bringing it to my attention. No really, thanks a lot.
Seresecros 05.11.2007 14:52
I actually would go to say this is one of the worst films ever. Creepy, wrong and not funny, it made me want to scratch out not my own eyes, but the eyes of whoever looked at the script and thought this was a worthwhile project. Horrible, horrible film.
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