"It's really funny, true stuff."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER

"Watching and laughing at the film, you'd never know it was such a troubled production. Here's to you, Mr. Reiner."
-- Phil Villarreal, ARIZONA DAILY STAR

"The story's a stretch, but there's something intrinsically likeable about the characters in Rumor Has It, an improbable romantic comedy about life, love and getting laid"
-- Urban Cinefile Critics, URBAN CINEFILE

"Rumor Has It is a lightweight comedy that only works thanks to a fantastic cast."
-- Scott Nash, THREE MOVIE BUFFS

"Even if it never quite jumps out of the tried-and-true mould, the sharp cast and clever script spice things up."
-- Rich Cline, SHADOWS ON THE WALL

"This is not a great movie, but it's very watchable and has some good laughs."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Rumor Has It, the latest romantic comedy to hit theaters, has a history of troubled production behind it. In development for a long time, screenwriter Ted Griffin had planned to make this his directorial debut. He had an A-list cast lined up along with a screenplay he was very confident with. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until shortly after production began, when Griffin was abruptly fired and replaced with director Rob Reiner. There were many rumors about what went on behind the scenes - including brawls between Griffin and star Kevin Costner, problems with the studio and many other situations. After Reiner took the helm the studio's confidence was renewed. The project continued on with Griffin's script and was finally ready for release. It arrives amidst a crowded holiday season but thanks to a high profile Christmas start gate it looks to be successful. I'm glad things worked out for the best, since Rumor Has It is a fun and enjoyable film that has a little something for everyone.

Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) is at a weird place in her life. She has just recently agreed to marry her boyfriend Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) even though she isn't sure if that's what she really wants. Her career has stalled and she is stuck writing obituaries at the New York Times. And to top it all off, she is headed to Pasadena for her younger sister's (Mena Suvari) wedding day. Sarah hasn't really connected with her family since the death of her mother several years earlier, and feels a great amount of seperation from them as well. The only one who she has a strong relationship is her grandmother, the fiesty Katharine (Shirley MacLaine). But soon Sarah discovers that her family is even stranger than she thinks when a twisted series of events comes to light.

In the 1960's, Katharine seduced a young college student by the name of Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner). He was half her age and attended school with her daughter and Sarah's mother, Rosalyn. But soon afterwards, Beau abandoned Katharine and began a relationship with Rosalyn - the girl he truly loved. But unfortunately, she decided to marry another man, none other than Earl Huttinger (Richard Jenkins), Sarah's father. After this series of events, Beau's close friend wrote a novel based on the incident - entitled The Graduate. A few years later, that novel became the smash hit movie sensation that had audiences everywhere talking. To Sarah's horror, she finds out that her grandmother is none other than the infamous "Mrs. Robinson." With this new knowledge, Sarah becomes determined to find Beau Burroughs and get him to reveal the truth about what really happened.

Rumor Has It is a fun film from beginning to end because it never takes itself too seriously. It is completely lighthearted and never dwells on dramatic moments for long. It works so well thanks to the excellent cast made up of several talented thespians. Jennifer Aniston is adorable here and is really charismatic in the lead role. She really shows some true comedic ability here as well. Kevin Costner, who I am not a fan of, is surprisingly good here and is easily at his most likable. His character could have come off as a pompous bachelor, but I'm glad they decided to make him sympathetic. Shirley MacLaine steals the show, however, in a hilarious performance. She gives the film some much needed spunk and garners laughs every time she is on screen. After an excellent turn in In Her Shoes, this is shaping up to be a fantastic year for her.

There are weak links in the cast though. Mark Ruffalo, who has seemingly been typecast in roles like this, is at his worst here, creating a bland and boring character. I usually enjoy his performances, but he was so unenergetic and boring - I really didn't care about his character at all. Mena Suvari isn't given enough to do to make a real impression. The other cast members are stuck in supporting roles and don't have enough material to work with. Kathy Bates, however, is great in an extended cameo.

The visuals in this film are surprisingly beautiful and really serve as one of the highlights. Whether highlighting the suburban areas of Pasadena to the lush surroundings of Half Moon Bay and wine country, this film is really wonderful to look at. This can easily be attributed to the strong direction of Rob Reiner. He does a much better job on this film than some of his previous works and this may be considered his comeback after a seemingly endless string of flops. The witty script by Ted Griffin is also notable. After crafting some hilarious sequences in both Ocean's Eleven and Matchstick Men, Griffin does so once again with this project. The writing is sharp and consistently amusing.

In closing, Rumor Has It is a real treat. It is filled with a little something for all audiences and features many talented thespians at their best. It may not be perfect, but the fun, lighthearted energy it has more than makes up for its flaws.

8/10 (B+)

Pure fluff with some good moments just nothing very special.

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One interesting thing was how this movie was set in 1997 during the internet boom > was this movie kicking around for that long before it got made or was that set there on purpose.

Entertaining fluff. The whole thing is fun but probably had the potential to be a great movie instead of just a decent one. The cast is good, though, with Aniston looking radiant and MacLaine delivering great acid-tongued one-liners. This is Rob Reiner's best movie in a long while, although considering the recent crop, that's not saying a lot. B-

Interesting idea, great cast, but ultimately a failure. This movie somehow suceeded in making Jennifer Aniston seem totally dislikeable, which is very hard to do. Not funny, not romantic, not dramatic.

GRADE: D

RUMOR HAS IT... is a failure and would remain a failure even if it didn't come from one of the most respected directors of our time and feature a roster of A-list talents. But with its' respected director and A-list talents, it registers as a spectacular, unforgivable failure of epic proportions. Don't trust the smiling famous faces on the poster and the strong director's name below them, this Christmas release is a lump of coal, more grating and boring than romantic or hilarious. The high-concept premise is one with much potential - the popular film THE GRADUATE was based on a real incident in Pasadena decades ago and the secret comes out, forcing a descendant (Jennifer Aniston, DERAILED) to find the truth, leading her to multiple fascinating finds, including the man (Kevin Costner, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER) who slept with both her grandmother (Shirley MacLaine, IN HER SHOES) and now-deceased mother. A man she herself can't resist. But under director Rob Reiner, whose last great film, A FEW GOOD MEN, was released over one decade ago, the concept results in a boring film which has never met a bland character or incest-themed one-liner it didn't love.

I did much seat-shifting during RUMOR HAS IT... because either the situation of a woman having sex with a man who slept with her mother and grandmother was uncomfortable or the film's pace was snail-slow. We can blame this film on its' troubled production, as first-time director Ted Griffin (respected writer of OCEAN'S ELEVEN) was fired at the start of the film's production, as was the first cinematographer. Reiner was a fast replacement (I presume he was having a nap when the producers phoned and this drowsiness translated to the final product) and it shows. The film's, at best, bland and long-winded and, at worst, mean-spirited and nausea-inducing.

Reiner, with replacement cinematographer Peter Deming (THE JACKET), does do a fine job of photographing Southern California. It's the one strong element of the film - the visual style. Never loud or drawing attention to itself, the camera captures the gorgeous colors of the state's rural areas. But Griffin's script is slow-paced and overflowing with sitcom-grade comic writing and Reiner can't right its' wrongs. The relationships are often out-of-focus and, as a moviegoer, I felt the sensation of entering a conversation near the end multiple times throughout, lost and unable to catch up. Few of the one-liners register with an ounce of wit or style and most stumble after the characters spout them. And, for a strange, undisclosed reason, the film's set almost a decade ago, with Clinton in the White House and the dot-com storm strong and expensive before the devastating crash. The timeline is strange because the characters and their actions would have the same impact in 2005.

And the cast, for such a clan of famous talents, delivers far-from-outstanding performances. Reiner does the near-impossible and draws an uninteresting and shrill performance from Aniston, who creates a character who is more grating b*tch than lovable neurotic. Superior performances are delivered by Costner and MacLaine, both superb veteran performers who find the most comic mileage in the bad script. She drenches her character's barbs in acid-burning wit, but can't hide the fact the grandmother role's thin and more of a plot-mover and one-liner-source than a screen being with human qualities. He, lording over his character's California mansion, delivers a fun, not-a-care-in-the-world rich-man performance. But even these two aren't great, failing to be memorable, just watchable to a point. None of the other performers register, including Steve Sandvoss (the delightful homosexual romance LATTER DAYS), who is wasted in his second film role, and Mena Suvari (AMERICAN PIE) as his character's wife.

RUMOR HAS IT... had potential, but, be it due to a troubled production, a bored director and cast, or a plain wretched script, it fails in being the emotional, smart comic experience it aspires to be. Instead, it's a well-shot, but flawed elsewhere failure which can't sustain the audience's interest or respect. Forget rumors, it's 100% fact this film's garbage and one of 2005's worst.

D+

Wow, word-of-mouth is pretty darn toxic for this one.

Wouldn't surprise me. This is a pointless movie that was okay, but could have been so much better with its premise. No one had any chemistry with each other in it, really. Shirley MacLaine almost single-handedly saves the film. Thankfully I saw a really good romcom the next day - Just like Heaven.

I have yet to find a single person who liked this movie. Similar situation with Wolf Creek, some people liked it, but the other dozen or so people I talked to that saw it all hated it.

I'm surprised how many negative review Rumor gets. I thought it looked pretty charming and sweet.

A horrible letdown. I was expecting something really funny, but instead was left wtih a bit of a bore. It was actually pretty good for the first part, but it goes down hill an alarming amount when she first meets Kevin Costner. Shirley Maclaine is the saving grace of the film with some damn funny one liners. I'm giving it a C+ since I did enjoy the beginning of the movie.

Shirley Maclaine is this film, when she's on screen its great, overall the story is predictable and I felt the voice over narration was irritating...it tells you everything rather the films howing it.

Its not a bad film, its just fluff you watch once, and you leave remembering Maclaine and little else.

What a terrible letdown. I can't recall sitting in silence- not laughing... not even enjoying myself- for so long during a movie. Shirley Maclaine *really* is the only saving grace to Rumor Has It, though she's not even as close to wonderful as in Shoes as I hoped. Ick ick ick. Someone kick Jennifer Aniston back to TV- she doesn't have much charisma nor talent for the big screen. Great idea, mediocre execution.

C-

This was a disappointment for me. The humor, accept for Shirlie MacLaine (who steals the film) wasn't laugh out loud funny, but more like Sideways type humor, and I'd actually consider it more of a dramedy than The Family Stone, which was a much MUCH better movie. It's not horrible or anything, just very average. My 15 year old niece took me to see it on Christmas day. She liked it a lot and thinks I liked it better than I really did.

C+

This film is quite sad.

Yeah, it did look kind of charming in the trailer. And while I must admit that Jennifer Aniston is quite good in some of the film's sillier dramatic scenes, this film, which had all the potential in the world, deviates from a plotline which might have worked (woman discovers her family is the Robinsons, confusion and hilarity ensue) and pretty much turns it into an attempted dramatic romance centering around incest.

Which might work if it were somehow funny, but it's not. Really really not.

And did I miss something with Shirley MacLaine? This was possibly the film's biggest shot at making some sort of connection with The Graduate, and it didn't even seem to me that she was trying to channel Mrs. Robinson.

Awful. D+

Wow, a lot of hate for this movie. I thought it was a decent little flick, though I may be lenient since The Graduate is my favorite movie and I go to Pasadena quite frequently. It was very watchable with some funny moments, predictable in a comforting way. Shirley MacLaine was excellent. I give it a B.

Heh. Come on people, it wasn't that bad. Sure it was predictable and pretentious, lacked chemistry and dragged on at times. It did have its moments though. Some of the dialogue was terrible, but some was great. It is the definition of a mixed bag.

B

I agree, it was uneven but enjoyable. The very definition of fluff.

Yeah, nothing that is going to be remembered in the next few years but it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

And I agree with those who commented on Shirley McClaine by the way, she was definately a highlight of the film.

I forgot that this film also had one of the worst lines of dialogue I'd ever heard.

The one about Mark Ruffalo and him getting stitches when he was little and NEVER WISHING FOR THAT DAY AGAIN UNTIL NOW.

I was realizing something else.

Do you remember that part they show in the trailer where Mark Ruffalo is hugging Richard Jenkins?

This might've just been my theater's screwed-up print or something, but when I saw the movie...it smashed cut from Jennifer Aniston talking to Shirley MacLaine to showing 2 seconds of Ruffalo already hugging (?, without any explanation) Jenkins and then back to Aniston and MacLaine. It was so bizarre and everyone in the theater laughed at how poorly edited it was. Was this just my theater or did it actually happen in the movie? Because, if so, terrible.

I don't remember it happening, but it's really just all a big blur of poo to me, so...

Mediocre fluff, with some funny one liners. McLaine steals the show.

B-

At my screening, the hugging scene was in it like it showed in the TV spots.
I forgot to mention that I was surprised to see George Clooney was a producer of this. He seems like he's WB's new go-to guy, kinda like Clint Eastwood was for many years until he got sick of begging them for money to produce his award winning films in recent years.

Way better than I thought - I enjoyed it more than Family Stone or at least found it to be more honest about relationships. Too bad it had to have Mark Ruffalo in it...

4 out of 5.