Movie Review: Rumour Has It...
I was looking forward to seeing "Rumour Has It...". The whole concept of the movie sounded quite interesting and likeable. Also, it was marketed as a romantic comedy, which, i guess, it is, and I'm a bit of a sucker for them. With Shirley MacLaine, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Ruffalo, Kevin Costner, Mena Suvari, and also Richard Jenkins - all actors which I quite like - combined with the aforementioned anticipations, it looked pretty fun. I finally watched it this morning, and despite my tendency to fall for below average, often pre-packaged romantic comedies, I constantly found myself watching the timer on the DVD player, counting down the minutes to its end. Sure, it's a harmless movie, and yes, parts of it I enjoyed, but that still doesn't change the fact that I found my attention drifting away whilst watching it, and, in some places, rolling my eyes at what i was seeing onscreen.
Most of you out there will be familar with the iconic American film, "The Graduate", starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. It was released in 1967, based upon a book of the same name, and it has been alluded to and made fun of countless times in many films, stories, television shows, and whatever else. To give you an idea of its impact, I've copied the following from The Graduate's "movie connections" link on its IMDB page:
Edited into
Visions of Light (1992)
Referenced in
The Strawberry Statement (1970)
Little Big Man (1970)
On Location: Dustin Hoffman (1971)
There's Always Vanilla (1971)
Three on a Meathook (1972)
Hungry Wives (1972)
40 Carats (1973)
Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974)
A Small Circle of Friends (1980)
Valley Girl (1983)
Ghost Busters (1984)
Next of Kin (1984)
Asik oldum (1985)
Modern Girls (1986)
The Secret of My Succe$s (1987)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Mystery Train (1989)
"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Cave Dwellers (#4.1)" (1991)
The Player (1992)
Used People (1992)
The 65th Annual Academy Awards (1993) (TV)
Wayne's World 2 (1993)
Spanking the Monkey (1994)
Sunny Side Up (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Barcelona (1994)
To Die For (1995)
Beautiful Girls (1996)
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Mother (1996/II)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Suicide Kings (1997)
Slaves to the Underground (1997)
Jackie Brown (1997)
The Wedding Singer (1998)
Six Days Seven Nights (1998)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1998) (TV)
Rushmore (1998)
The Yearbook: An 'Animal House' Reunion (1998) (V)
Fallout 2: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game (1998) (VG)
Playing by Heart (1998)
Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1 (1999) (TV)
Staring at Headlights (1999)
Cruel Intentions (1999)
Never Been Kissed (1999)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Dogma (1999)
American Pie (1999)
Runaway Bride (1999)
"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Diabolik (#11.13)" (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Amore a prima vista (1999)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000) (TV)
Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955-1970) (2000) (TV)
Loser (2000)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Ghost World (2001)
American Pie 2 (2001)
Going the Distance: Remembering 'Marathon Man' (2001) (V)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Orange County (2002)
Tadpole (2002)
Secretary (2002)
Film School Confidential (2002)
40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
Van Wilder (2002)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Sweet Sixteen (2002/I)
Igby Goes Down (2002)
The Guru (2002)
Moonlight Mile (2002)
"I'm Alan Partridge: Never Say Alan Again (#2.4)" (2002)
The Making of 'The Producers' (2002) (V)
Dot the I (2003)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
Detective Fiction (2003)
Old School (2003)
Hope Springs (2003)
Kærlighed ved første hik 3 - Anja efter Viktor (2003)
Valley Girl: 20 Totally Tubular Years Later (2003) (V)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Love Actually (2003)
Garden State (2004)
The Making of 'Runaway Jury' (2004) (V)
Crying? (2004)
Saving Face (2004)
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (2004) (VG)
Inside Deep Throat (2005)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 'Movie Quotes': The Greatest Lines from American Film (2005) (TV)
Movie Music Mania (2005) (TV)
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006)
Features
"The Newlywed Game" (1966)
Featured in
The 40th Annual Academy Awards (1968) (TV)
The 53rd Annual Academy Awards (1981) (TV)
Precious Images (1986)
Used People (1992)
Homeward Bound (1994) (TV)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1998) (TV)
The Other Sister (1999)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000) (TV)
Without Charlie (2001)
The Flamingo Rising (2001) (TV)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions (2002) (TV)
Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film (2002) (TV)
A Decade Under the Influence (2003)
Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs (2004) (TV)
Masters of Production: The Hidden Art of Hollywood (2004) (TV)
X-rated (2004) (TV)
Meu Tio Matou um Cara (2004)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 'Movie Quotes': The Greatest Lines from American Film (2005) (TV)
Movie Music Mania (2005) (TV)
Rumor Has It... (2005)
Spoofed in
Jack Benny's Bag (1968) (TV)
Urusei Yatsura 1: Onri yû (1983)
Wayne's World 2 (1993)
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
Kingpin (1996)
Mother (1996/II)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Infidelity (1998) (V)
Rushmore (1998)
A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)
The Other Sister (1999)
The Out-of-Towners (1999)
American Pie (1999)
Asia Is In Too Deep (2000) (V)
The Ladies Man (2000)
Tomcats (2001)
Shrek (2001)
Legally Blonde (2001)
Bubble Boy (2001)
Van Wilder (2002)
Gay Propaganda (2002)
Old School (2003)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Shrek 2 (2004)
Little Manhattan (2005)
Whoa! It tells the story of a recent college graduate who becomes involved in an affair with his father's business associate's wife, who is in her late 40's. She's a very dry woman with an acid wit. She's incredibly candid woman who we're easily intimdated by. She's also incredibly sexy, seductive, and clever. She makes us vulnerable. And this is how Benjamin becomes trapped in this affair with a woman who is over twenty years his senior. To make things more complicated and dimensional, Benjamin falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daugher, Elaine, who is quite sweet, shy and naive - pretty much the exact opposite to what Mrs. Robinson is. Mrs. Robinson is not impressed... And there's your movie.
Now there's this movie, "Rumour Has It..." which is "based on a true rumour" that perhaps circulated "a long time ago". Sarah Huttinger (Aniston) and her fiance, Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) are flying from New York to Pasadena, as Sarah's little sister, Annie (a very blonde Mena Suvari) is getting married. On the plane, Sarah asks Jeff to keep their engagement hush hush during their stay in Pasadena. After all, it's Annie's wedding, and such an announcement would shift the attention away from her; also Jeff's never met Sarah's Dad, Earl (Richard Jenkins) who's a bit tricky. But we don't buy into this. We sense that Sarah, despite Jeff's sweetness and goodness, has cold feet. And, as soon as they arrive back home, it's confirmed.
"Don't get me wrong," Sarah explains to her Grandma, Katherine (Shirley MacLaine) who she's not allowed to call "Grandma", "Jeff is an amazing guy, it's just that when he asked me to marry him, I didn't feel what I think you're supposed to feel. I just felt... terrified". Katherine explains that it's perfectly normal - well, within this family, anyway - to feel like that before your marriage. "How did you feel just before Grandpa asked you to marry him?", Sarah asks Katherine. "I threw up," she replies. "But that was probably because I was pregnant with your mother." She also mentions that Sarah's mother, who died when she was only nine, went "MIA" (missing in action) the week before her wedding, to Mexico. This gets Sarah thinking. Why did she disappear? And why Mexico? Was there another man? Sarah is postiviely convinced her Mum had a fling during her week of absence. After all, this would explain why she is nothing like her family, both physically and mentally. So, she consults Aunt Mitsy (a cameo appearance by Kathy Bates - always a welcome addition, no matter what the role). She can't recall any trip to Mexico (it must be all those Bloody Mary's), but she remembers that her mum only had eyes for two men: Sarah's father, and Beau Burrows. Beau Burrows was friends with Charles Webb, who wrote the "Graduate". Now, rumour had it that Charles Webb based his book on a family he knew in Pasadena. In the book, Benjamin Braddock, and Elaine Robinson scooted off to Mexico a week before Elaine's marriage. So, if Sarah's Mum was Elaine, then this means that Sarah's grandma, Katherine, is indeed Mrs. Robinson. This also means that Benjamin Braddock is Beau Burrows, and, perhaps, as Sarah may have been concieved during this little 'fling', her father.
Sarah sets out to find Beau Burrows, and does. She learns that he is, and was back then, sterlile, so he can't be her father. So Beau really isn't Sarah's father, after all, right? He is, however, quite successful, quite charming, and quite handsome. So would the fact that Beau Burrows is not indeed Sarah's father legitimise a last minute 'fling' before Sarah's wedding, just like her mother did? ("Maybe all of the women in my family have to sleep with you...") Beau is very attracted to Sarah, and Sarah seems to like him back. What kind of complications is this going bring? And what's going to happen when Sarah mentions the name "Beau Burrows" to Katherine, the real Mrs. Robinson? And what about Sarah's finace, Jeff? So, yes. The movie takes this situation and tries to have its own fun with it. Did I have fun with it, though? No.
"Rumour Has It..." may be kind of cute, but I was left wanting so much more. So much more fun could have been had, I think - by the plot, the characters, and the audience, too - and it's a shame to see such a good concept, and such a terrific cast, go to waste. Whenever the opportunity for a fun and exciting plot event came around, the movie seemed to skip right past it and continue its way down a path that was so painfully predictable. David Stratton, when reviewing this film, said that he loved the concept of this movie. Well, so do I; I just think it's a disappointment that this concept was materialised so ordinarily.
Score: 2.5 out of 5 (And I even think this is being too generous; had it not been for Shirley MacLaine's wonderful embodiment of the Mrs. Robinson character, a more realistic score for this film would have been 1.5 out of 5).
Most of you out there will be familar with the iconic American film, "The Graduate", starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. It was released in 1967, based upon a book of the same name, and it has been alluded to and made fun of countless times in many films, stories, television shows, and whatever else. To give you an idea of its impact, I've copied the following from The Graduate's "movie connections" link on its IMDB page:
Edited into
Visions of Light (1992)
Referenced in
The Strawberry Statement (1970)
Little Big Man (1970)
On Location: Dustin Hoffman (1971)
There's Always Vanilla (1971)
Three on a Meathook (1972)
Hungry Wives (1972)
40 Carats (1973)
Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974)
A Small Circle of Friends (1980)
Valley Girl (1983)
Ghost Busters (1984)
Next of Kin (1984)
Asik oldum (1985)
Modern Girls (1986)
The Secret of My Succe$s (1987)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Mystery Train (1989)
"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Cave Dwellers (#4.1)" (1991)
The Player (1992)
Used People (1992)
The 65th Annual Academy Awards (1993) (TV)
Wayne's World 2 (1993)
Spanking the Monkey (1994)
Sunny Side Up (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Barcelona (1994)
To Die For (1995)
Beautiful Girls (1996)
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Mother (1996/II)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Suicide Kings (1997)
Slaves to the Underground (1997)
Jackie Brown (1997)
The Wedding Singer (1998)
Six Days Seven Nights (1998)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1998) (TV)
Rushmore (1998)
The Yearbook: An 'Animal House' Reunion (1998) (V)
Fallout 2: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game (1998) (VG)
Playing by Heart (1998)
Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1 (1999) (TV)
Staring at Headlights (1999)
Cruel Intentions (1999)
Never Been Kissed (1999)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Dogma (1999)
American Pie (1999)
Runaway Bride (1999)
"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Diabolik (#11.13)" (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Amore a prima vista (1999)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000) (TV)
Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955-1970) (2000) (TV)
Loser (2000)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Ghost World (2001)
American Pie 2 (2001)
Going the Distance: Remembering 'Marathon Man' (2001) (V)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Orange County (2002)
Tadpole (2002)
Secretary (2002)
Film School Confidential (2002)
40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
Van Wilder (2002)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Sweet Sixteen (2002/I)
Igby Goes Down (2002)
The Guru (2002)
Moonlight Mile (2002)
"I'm Alan Partridge: Never Say Alan Again (#2.4)" (2002)
The Making of 'The Producers' (2002) (V)
Dot the I (2003)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
Detective Fiction (2003)
Old School (2003)
Hope Springs (2003)
Kærlighed ved første hik 3 - Anja efter Viktor (2003)
Valley Girl: 20 Totally Tubular Years Later (2003) (V)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Love Actually (2003)
Garden State (2004)
The Making of 'Runaway Jury' (2004) (V)
Crying? (2004)
Saving Face (2004)
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (2004) (VG)
Inside Deep Throat (2005)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 'Movie Quotes': The Greatest Lines from American Film (2005) (TV)
Movie Music Mania (2005) (TV)
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006)
Features
"The Newlywed Game" (1966)
Featured in
The 40th Annual Academy Awards (1968) (TV)
The 53rd Annual Academy Awards (1981) (TV)
Precious Images (1986)
Used People (1992)
Homeward Bound (1994) (TV)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1998) (TV)
The Other Sister (1999)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000) (TV)
Without Charlie (2001)
The Flamingo Rising (2001) (TV)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions (2002) (TV)
Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film (2002) (TV)
A Decade Under the Influence (2003)
Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs (2004) (TV)
Masters of Production: The Hidden Art of Hollywood (2004) (TV)
X-rated (2004) (TV)
Meu Tio Matou um Cara (2004)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 'Movie Quotes': The Greatest Lines from American Film (2005) (TV)
Movie Music Mania (2005) (TV)
Rumor Has It... (2005)
Spoofed in
Jack Benny's Bag (1968) (TV)
Urusei Yatsura 1: Onri yû (1983)
Wayne's World 2 (1993)
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
Kingpin (1996)
Mother (1996/II)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Infidelity (1998) (V)
Rushmore (1998)
A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)
The Other Sister (1999)
The Out-of-Towners (1999)
American Pie (1999)
Asia Is In Too Deep (2000) (V)
The Ladies Man (2000)
Tomcats (2001)
Shrek (2001)
Legally Blonde (2001)
Bubble Boy (2001)
Van Wilder (2002)
Gay Propaganda (2002)
Old School (2003)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Shrek 2 (2004)
Little Manhattan (2005)
Whoa! It tells the story of a recent college graduate who becomes involved in an affair with his father's business associate's wife, who is in her late 40's. She's a very dry woman with an acid wit. She's incredibly candid woman who we're easily intimdated by. She's also incredibly sexy, seductive, and clever. She makes us vulnerable. And this is how Benjamin becomes trapped in this affair with a woman who is over twenty years his senior. To make things more complicated and dimensional, Benjamin falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daugher, Elaine, who is quite sweet, shy and naive - pretty much the exact opposite to what Mrs. Robinson is. Mrs. Robinson is not impressed... And there's your movie.
Now there's this movie, "Rumour Has It..." which is "based on a true rumour" that perhaps circulated "a long time ago". Sarah Huttinger (Aniston) and her fiance, Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) are flying from New York to Pasadena, as Sarah's little sister, Annie (a very blonde Mena Suvari) is getting married. On the plane, Sarah asks Jeff to keep their engagement hush hush during their stay in Pasadena. After all, it's Annie's wedding, and such an announcement would shift the attention away from her; also Jeff's never met Sarah's Dad, Earl (Richard Jenkins) who's a bit tricky. But we don't buy into this. We sense that Sarah, despite Jeff's sweetness and goodness, has cold feet. And, as soon as they arrive back home, it's confirmed.
"Don't get me wrong," Sarah explains to her Grandma, Katherine (Shirley MacLaine) who she's not allowed to call "Grandma", "Jeff is an amazing guy, it's just that when he asked me to marry him, I didn't feel what I think you're supposed to feel. I just felt... terrified". Katherine explains that it's perfectly normal - well, within this family, anyway - to feel like that before your marriage. "How did you feel just before Grandpa asked you to marry him?", Sarah asks Katherine. "I threw up," she replies. "But that was probably because I was pregnant with your mother." She also mentions that Sarah's mother, who died when she was only nine, went "MIA" (missing in action) the week before her wedding, to Mexico. This gets Sarah thinking. Why did she disappear? And why Mexico? Was there another man? Sarah is postiviely convinced her Mum had a fling during her week of absence. After all, this would explain why she is nothing like her family, both physically and mentally. So, she consults Aunt Mitsy (a cameo appearance by Kathy Bates - always a welcome addition, no matter what the role). She can't recall any trip to Mexico (it must be all those Bloody Mary's), but she remembers that her mum only had eyes for two men: Sarah's father, and Beau Burrows. Beau Burrows was friends with Charles Webb, who wrote the "Graduate". Now, rumour had it that Charles Webb based his book on a family he knew in Pasadena. In the book, Benjamin Braddock, and Elaine Robinson scooted off to Mexico a week before Elaine's marriage. So, if Sarah's Mum was Elaine, then this means that Sarah's grandma, Katherine, is indeed Mrs. Robinson. This also means that Benjamin Braddock is Beau Burrows, and, perhaps, as Sarah may have been concieved during this little 'fling', her father.
Sarah sets out to find Beau Burrows, and does. She learns that he is, and was back then, sterlile, so he can't be her father. So Beau really isn't Sarah's father, after all, right? He is, however, quite successful, quite charming, and quite handsome. So would the fact that Beau Burrows is not indeed Sarah's father legitimise a last minute 'fling' before Sarah's wedding, just like her mother did? ("Maybe all of the women in my family have to sleep with you...") Beau is very attracted to Sarah, and Sarah seems to like him back. What kind of complications is this going bring? And what's going to happen when Sarah mentions the name "Beau Burrows" to Katherine, the real Mrs. Robinson? And what about Sarah's finace, Jeff? So, yes. The movie takes this situation and tries to have its own fun with it. Did I have fun with it, though? No.
"Rumour Has It..." may be kind of cute, but I was left wanting so much more. So much more fun could have been had, I think - by the plot, the characters, and the audience, too - and it's a shame to see such a good concept, and such a terrific cast, go to waste. Whenever the opportunity for a fun and exciting plot event came around, the movie seemed to skip right past it and continue its way down a path that was so painfully predictable. David Stratton, when reviewing this film, said that he loved the concept of this movie. Well, so do I; I just think it's a disappointment that this concept was materialised so ordinarily.
Score: 2.5 out of 5 (And I even think this is being too generous; had it not been for Shirley MacLaine's wonderful embodiment of the Mrs. Robinson character, a more realistic score for this film would have been 1.5 out of 5).