La rumeur court...

This film bored me. Jennifer Aniston is decent but the plot is weak. No one really leaves an impression though Mark Ruffalo tries hard in a thankless part. The film draws inspiration from 'The Graduate' but doesn't come even close to the 1967 film. Kevin Costner has a little fun with his role. Shirley MacLaine plays the same role she's been playing essentially for the last few years, a crotchety version of Shirley Maclaine! Aniston's character is quite simply tiresome and her emotional journey didn't leave an impact on me. Avoid unless you are bored with nothing else to do.

Overall 4/10

This is the kind of movie that just pisses me off to no end because it has so much potential, but somehow it comes off as exceedingly mediocre. Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who discovers her family was the model for the novel and film The Graduate. She never saw how she fit in with her family, so she wonders if maybe the model for Benjamin, a rich man named Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), is her real father. She's wrong, but in the process of this discovery, she ends up sleeping with the man, thus continuing the tradition of her mother (deceased) and grandmother (played here by Shirley MacLaine). This in turn ruins her relationship with her loving fiancé (Mark Ruffalo). I remember seeing the trailer last fall and thinking, "This is a great idea." I laughed pretty much constantly during that preview. Unfortunately, it contains most of the film's best moments. The actual film is more of a romance (or perhaps a better term would be "chick flick") than a comedy. It gets somewhat sappy, and the whole thing lumbers on and his never very strong. This is especially annoying, as all the actors are actually very good. Aniston proves once again that she is a very good actress (if only she could land some great material). Costner gives his second excellent performance of the year (I thought his performance in The Upside of Anger was perhaps the year's best performance from an actor). He was so mediocre earlier on, it's kind of cool to see that maybe he is just now hitting his peak. Mark Ruffalo is very funny, as is Mena Suvari, who plays Aniston's younger sister. And MacLaine's role is absolutely golden. She also had a very good performance elsewhere in '05 (In Her Shoes), but she has even more to do here and she flexes her comic muscles. With all that goodness, it really pains me that it's so hard to muster any enthusiasm for this somewhat lame film!

There are moments in this inconsequential 2005 comedy when I can see a bright future for Jennifer Aniston's light comedic talents, even though this movie does not stretch her much beyond her likeably insecure "Friends" persona. She plays Sarah Huttinger, a likeably insecure New York Times obituary writer going home to Pasadena to attend her younger sister Annie's wedding. Sarah is picture-pretty, 33 and engaged to a nice, unflappable guy named Jeff who accompanies her. At the same time, she's unhappy about her career and wondering why she always feels out-of-sorts with her well-to-do family. A ray of light comes from her only kindred spirit in the family, her feisty, tart-tongued grandmother Katherine, who tells Sarah about her late mother's pre-wedding tryst in Mexico that gives rise to questions about Sarah's paternity.

All the domestic shenanigans that ensue would probably be enough to fill this comedy's blessedly brief 96-minute running time, but screenwriter Ted Griffin hangs it all on the idea that Sarah's family may have been the inspiration for the Robinsons in Charles Webb's 1963 novel, "The Graduate", which of course, is the basis of Mike Nichols' classic 1967 movie. The tie-in must have sounded like a creative idea on paper, but something happened on the way to the screen that has taken most of the comic invention out of it. In fact, there is a pervasive lethargy throughout this movie, and director Rob Reiner is unable to overcome it because Sarah's dilemma of choosing between adventure and predictability never feels that emotionally resonant. The dialogue never feels sharp, perceptive or funny enough to pull off the inevitable comparisons with the earlier film. Moreover, the story is set rather arbitrarily in 1997 to make the timelines make sense with the stars' ages.

Beyond Aniston, a strong cast has been set adrift. Playing Katherine like an even more embittered variation on Aurora Greenway, Shirley MacLaine crackles with aplomb as the possible inspiration for Mrs. Robinson, even when her lines are not as snappy as she thinks they are. As the aging but still magnetic Benjamin Braddock doppelganger, a high-tech mogul named Beau Burroughs, an overly sedate Kevin Costner barely registers in a smallish role. When he does, there is an insinuating, almost creepy quality in the way Beau's relationship with Sarah evolves. Until the end, Mark Ruffalo has little to do as Jeff but wait patiently for Sarah to resolve her personal dilemma. Richard Jenkins and Mena Suvari have even less time to make an impression in the underwritten roles of Sarah's passive father and bubbly sister, respectively. The 2006 DVD provides the original theatrical trailer (which gives away most of the plot) as its sole extra.

This picture begins with a funny premise. A woman, attending her sister's wedding, discovers that her mother was Mrs. Robinson from "The Graduate."

Kevin Costner is the guy who had the affair with the mother who is now deceased as well as the grandma Shirley MacLaine. MacLaine seems to be in a new career mold as a lively senior citizen. She is a pleasure to watch on the screen.

The problem with "Rumor Has It" is that the film goes down once we see differences between it and the original "The Graduate."

As the let-down boyfriend, Mark Ruffalo is charming on screen. Kathy Bates appears in one scene as the friend of the late woman. She really has put on weight.

Jennifer Aniston is appealing in the role of the daughter who very well realizes that the man she is falling for could very well be her dad. Though we see that this is not the case, we are still annoyed by a possible incestuous relationship.

It was fun. This has been panned by many, but heck, it's not supposed to be Shakespeare. It has a great cast -- Shirley McLaine and Kevin Costner have a great scene together. I liked Jennifer Aniston -- especially in the blue dress. Mark Ruffalo was the nice guy. I laughed a lot. It wasn't all fluff, either. I thought the characters grew a little. Jennifer and her sister and father grew closer. I think if you saw the original The Graduate, this movie might be more interesting to you. There were some great shots of Pasadena and the California coast. Definitely is a chick-flick. I went with a girl friend of mine and we both enjoyed it.