Rumor Has It...

The fact that Rumor Has It was on cable is probably the reason why I even watched this flick in the first place. See I'm not the biggest Jennifer Aniston fan. Nor do I care for Kevin Costner. But since I do enjoy Mark Ruffalo and the plot of the flick intrigued me, I figured why not give it a chance.

It starts off by telling us that it is "based on a true rumor, sort of". Basically, Jennifer's character, Sarah, is on her way to Pasadena to attend her younger sister's wedding. Sarah is not only bringing her fiancé, Jeff (Mark Ruffalo), to meet her family for the first time, she hasn't even told them that they're engaged. I guess she doesn't tell them because she feels she has nothing in common with her family. Anyway, at the rehearsal dinner, her Grandmother (don't call her that!) Katherine (played cleverly by Shirley McLaine) lets it slip that perhaps "The Graduate" was based on her and Sarah's mother's affair with a man right before Sarah's mom was to marry her father. After much digging, Sarah fears that her family really is the inspiration for the book and the film "The Graduate", that perhaps her grandmother may be the real "Mrs. Robinson" and that the man her mother had an affair with may be her biological father. This begins her journey to finding Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), the real Benjamin Braddock of "The Graduate". Through her own crazy agenda, she finds Beau in San Francisco, where he is apparently some mogul of sorts. She confronts him and finds out he's sterile and could no way be her father.

Right around the time Beau entered the picture, wass about the time I started to lose interest. Don't get me wrong, this flick isn't bad, it really does have a clever premise and the cast isn't bad either, but after Sarah realizes that Beau is not her father, we are forced to watch have to sit there and watch an unispiring flick that resembles just about every other romantic comedy out there. The flick basically spews of girlie flick clichés at this point; they get drunk, they have sex, Beau woos Sarah and takes her out to dinner by flying her there in his plane, they attend a dance and she's all dolled up, and of course Jeff catches them and he runs off and she's so distraught over it..blah blah blah. So perhaps this is why I didn't absolutely LOVE this flick, I just enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.

The problem with "Rumor Has It" is that it may be too clever for its own good. It's a movie that assumes everyone has watched "The Graduate", read the book, or is from Pasadena to understand all the inside jokes it has to offer. Plus I feel there could be more to Mark Ruffalo's character and perhaps less with Mena Suvari's, who plays Sarah's younger sister, Annie. Yes, we know she differs Sarah, but does her character have to be the Izod-wearing ditzy California blonde cliché? And Jennifer Aniston, well she's the same in EVERY single movie. I don't why people love her so much. And what was the big deal with "Derailed"? She seemed the same to me! Anyway, back to the flick...

So all in all, the flick wasn't so bad. As I said, I liked it way more than I thought I would. But it really wasn't like Rob Reiner's previous flicks such as "A Few Good Men", "Princess Bride" or "American President" and I guess wasn't meant to be. But perhaps I was expecting more, since his latest films such as "Alex & Emma" and the dreaded "The Story of Us" weren't really great at all.

I give this flick... 2 1/2 Martini's (way less than Katherine should've drank!)




images courtesy of Liz Aguirre-Huereque ©2007