ViewGuide

Created Aug 18, 2017 10:31PM PST • Edited Aug 30, 2017 09:44PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   More drama than comedy makes Rumor Has It more trouble than it’s worth, especially for a middle-aged dude like me. Romcoms are good when they’re funny and sexy. Rumor Has It nails sexy but wiffs funny.

   Jennifer Anniston is more irritated than comedic, yet still sexy as hell. Thus, this “comedy” gives us smiling bridesmaids followed by a scowling Anniston. It was made at her commercial peak, just post Friends.

   The most interesting thing about Rumor Has It is its starfuck of The Graduate. Sadly, that’s not enough.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Jennifer Aniston was a late 30s single woman playing a late 30s single woman, a year older than her mother when she died, when her mother had two daughters. Thus the generations of American women get essayed.

   Kevin Costner & Shirley MacLaine are two great stars who add greatly to Aniston’s romcom. Along with a young Mark Ruffalo, they make the movie.

   Richard Jenkins and Mena Suvari plays the other living members of Anniston’s nuclear family.

   Kathy Bates makes a fun cameo as tipsy Aunt Mitsy.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    Too much estrogen for me in this romcom misfire. In classic romcom fashion, it’s a women’s tale told from the female side. Pity it’s not much of a comedy.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play OK 2.5

    Give people everything they want and let them alone for a hundred years. This is what you get.

    Great line in a disappointing screenplay.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5

    Set in idyllic Pasadena, given that it apes The Graduate.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.0

17. Sex Titillating 2.1

18. Violence Gentle 1.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

    Rumor Has It reflects Left Wing Hollywood, complete with favorable Che anecdote and Castro portraits.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.8

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0