Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director :
Rob Reiner
Cast :
Jennifer Aniston……….Sarah Huttinger
Kevin Costner……….Beau Burroughs
Shirley MacLaine……….Katharine Richelieu
Mark Ruffalo……….Jeff Daly
Richard Jenkins……….Earl Huttinger
Christopher McDonald……….Roger McManus
Steve Sandvoss……….Scott
Mena Suvari……….Annie Huttinger
The Movie
Jennifer Aniston’s post-Friends career has been one in which she’s picked a variety of roles that are miles away from being “Rachel.” One has to commend her, as she’s shown that despite being in a lot of movies that she does have a knack for picking quality roles. It’s just a shame that a lot of the movies she’s chosen are marred by a major flaw that obscures a high level of work she’s put in over the last year, and unfortunately Rumor Has It… was another one of those films.
Rumor Has It… has Aniston as Sarah. She and fiancée Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) are going back to Sarah’s hometown of Pasadena, CA, to do two things: meet her family and attend the wedding of Sarah’s sister Annie (Mena Suvari). With all sorts of comic hilarity inserted, Sarah discovers her family is the one used to base the Robinsons in The Graduate, complete with her grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) as the lead seductress of the film and the young man (Kevin Costner) who wound up with both mother and daughter. What follows is a journey of self discovery for Sarah, as she has to evaluate everything in her life and where she stands with everyone in it.
And played for laughs or for serious antics Rumor Has It… could be a great film. It has all the ingredients for it: a top cast, a good director and some great cinematography. But something happened to all three en route to making this film. In trying to craft a film that’s more suited for drama, Rob Reiner tries to put into too many of his own brand of humor
Reiner is a man whose responsible for some modern masterpieces (The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, Stand by Me and This is Spinal Tap) seems to be out of his element as he tries to craft his brand of comedy onto a film that has something else going for it. With a lot of dramatic moments and situations inherent to the film, Reiner tries to add too much obvious humor in a film whose best moments are subtle ones.
It takes away from a cast whose pretty solid in what it does. While the light is focused on Costner and Aniston for most of the time, Ruffalo and MacLaine provide some lighter moments as well. The film focuses on Costner and Aniston so much that the supporting isn’t used as much as it could; there’s plenty of story to go around and the film’s supporting cast could use some development.
Score : 5 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen format with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the DVD has a good but not great transfer. This isn’t a visual film but it does have some plush colors and was has a clear separation.
The Audio
Presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 format, the film has a rather disappointing audio track. The sound is rather muted, requiring the volume to be turned up much higher to get a suitable quality level.
The Extras
All that is included is the Theatrical Trailer.
Score : 1.5 / 10
