Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4837 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-05-22
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Rumour Has It brings together several people whose film career could usefully use a jolt. Kevin Costner, the excellent and pretty much unseen The Upside Of Anger aside, is long in need of a hit. Director Rob Reiner is some distance away from the heights of his big successes such as When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men. And the calibre of Jennifer Aniston’s movie CV has her still mainly regarded as Rachel from Friends.

Sadly, Rumour Has It does none of them any favours. It follows Aniston’s quest to dig into her family history, believing as she does that her mother and grandmother inspired the book of The Graduate. It’s a fun premise, yet the film does little with it. The script is lightweight, the humour is thin on the ground, and only good performances from Costner and the scene-stealing Shirley Maclaine lift it in any way.

As for Rob Reiner, he’s very much a director for hire here. He’s considerably far off his best work, and while Rumour Has It isn’t, ultimately, a poor film, it is an entirely unessential and sparse one. A waste of all the talents concerned, each of whom is easily capable of bettering this.--Simon Brew

Synopsis
With the romantic comedy RUMOUR HAS IT, director Rob Reiner (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY) attempts the tricky task of creating a film based on an already celebrated classic, 1967's THE GRADUATE. Starring Dustin Hoffman and based on a novel by Charlie Webb, the original film revolved around the love triangle between a recent college-graduate, his girlfriend, and her famously seductive mother. Here, Reiner casts a chain-smoking Shirley MacLaine as the supposed real-life inspiration for Mrs. Robinson, and Jennifer Aniston as her granddaughter. Set for the most part within the gossipy community of Pasadena, California, the film follows Sarah Huttinger (Aniston) and her fiance (Mark Ruffalo) as they travel home for her perky sister's (Mena Suvari) wedding. Having nothing in common with her family, Sarah is intrigued upon learning that she may actually be the secret love child of her deceased mother and Beau Borroughs (Kevin Costner), the man whose affairs with both Sarah's mother and grandmother supposedly inspired Charlie Webb, a classmate and friend of Beau, to write THE GRADUATE. From here, Sarah seeks out Beau, interested in him as a father-like figure and possibly more. Aniston brings a Rachel-like (FRIENDS) comic vibe to her character, frequently expressing her neuroses by talking to herself out loud in a sitcom-ish style. Costner is plenty capable in his role. Reiner's script veers away from the classic romantic comedy formula by keeping Ruffalo's character at the sidelines. Rather, RUMOUR HAS IT focuses on one woman's journey towards adulthood, self-realisation, and acceptance of her origins via a path that while strange seems to be family tradition.

Customer Reviews

Rumor Has It
I was expecting a comedy - but was sadly disappointed. I can't believe that someone actually sat down to write the script to this film. My dog could have done better - and he doesn't even have opposable thumbs!

The Graduate revisited
Having watched Rumour has it - I find myself at odds with the majority of reviews...........The film, albeit light and frothy, is easy on the eye and combines a refreshing humour with the dead pan lunacy of the plot...The cast are relaxed and the zany thread running through the film are just good escapist fun. Kostner and Mclaine steal the picture with their excellent timing and delivery of the script.....A criticsm? Yes. An overblown sequence of shouting and domestic mayhem when the cast come together in Pasadena should have been cut.........It spoils an otherwise cool and stylish presentation.

David Turner (Ealing London UK)

Acting by rote
None of the actors were very convincing, though Shirley Maclaine's character was occasionally entertaining. (Still only a pale imitation of her character in "Steel Magnolias" -- Grandma here lacks the vinegary wit of her previous interpretation of a Southern eccentric.) All of the actors were okay, but didn't seem to be trying very hard. Aniston seemed to be playing a strange and not very endearing mix of Rachel and Monica from "Friends;" Costner hardly projected any charisma and his laid-back brand of smarmy smugness hardly explained his alleged attractiveness to three generations of women from the same family; Ruffalo played a slightly pathetic long-suffering boyfriend; Suvari, unfortunately, fell victim to her rather perfect looks instead of surpassing them with her acting abilities as she has done in the past. You could go on (and on), but what would be the point? "Rumour Has It" is watchable. But only if you are wanting a non-demanding, only slightly comic way to fill an hour or so of your time. It lacks spark, it lacks effort -- could do better all around. B minus.