 |
| Director
: |
Rob Reiner
|
| Starring
: |
Jennifer Aniston, Mark Ruffalo,
Shirley MacLaine |
|
| The plot of
Rumor Has It... |
A woman (Aniston) learns that her family was the
inspiration for the book and film The Graduate
-- and that she just might be the offspring of
the well-documented event. |
Rumor Has
It... Review
|
Review by Brian
Lowry:
As muddled in most respects
as its title, "Rumor Has It... " begins with
an intriguing premise -- a young woman discovering that
her mother and grandmother provided inspiration for
the novel-turned-film classic "The Graduate"
-- but it devolves into a bland romance spiced with
too little comedy. The one grand spark comes from Shirley
MacLaine as the salty, boozing incarnation of Mrs. Robinson,
but an older crowd curious about the nostalgic hook
will be disappointed with the other aspects of the pic,
while undemanding young femmes more likely to buy into
the underlying true-love-versus-settling scenario could
be a tough sell. Facing those obstacles, this "Rumor"
should pass quickly. Pic started out as the helming
debut of scribe Ted Griffin, who still gets writing
credit, but he was replaced behind the camera early
in the shoot by Rob ReinerRob Reiner. In any event,
some of the deficiencies appear to stem from what didn't
make the final cut. Vital story elements -- beginning
with why the protagonist is so disenchanted with her
life as a newspaper obit and wedding writer -- are missing.
In this case, with a 97-minute run time, a little more
might actually have been more..more..
Review By Pam
Grady:
Nearly 40 years after
it was first released, The Graduate remains an American
comedy classic, in no small part because of Calder Willingham
and Buck Henry's sparkling, witty script. Ted Griffin
obviously loves and admires it and evidently has enough
hubris—based on credits that include Ravenous,
Ocean's Eleven, and Matchstick Men—to believe
he is as talented as those two gentlemen, for he has
written a sort of sequel to their movie. He isn't, and
Rumor Has It, which was subject to its own rumors when
Griffin was fired as director after shooting began and
replaced by Rob Reiner, is simply pathetic, a woeful
romantic comedy that misfires on virtually every level.
Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) grew up in Pasadena,
where it was legend that the events that transpired
in Charles Webb's novel The Graduate and the later Mike
Nichols' movie happened to a local family. But just
who the real women were behind the voracious Mrs. Robinson
and Elaine, the mother and daughter who slept with the
same man, remained a mystery. So by the time Sarah returns
home with fiancé Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo) to
attend her sister Annie's (Mena Suvari) wedding, the
gossip has taken on the patina of urban myth. But right
around the time Jeff does the math and informs Sarah
that her late mother must have been pregnant when she
was born, her acerbic grandmother Katharine (Shirley
MacLaine) makes a slip. With the force of a lightning
strike, Sarah realizes that her grandmother is Mrs.
Robinson, making mom Elaine. It also means that her
sweet, good-natured father Earl (Richard Jenkins) isn't
necessarily her real dad, since he is definitely not
the graduate from Webb's book..More..
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