Information about Rumor Has It

Rumor Has It...
Promotional poster for Rumor Has It
Directed by	Rob Reiner
Produced by	Ben Cosgrove, Paula Weinstein
Written by	Ted Griffin
Starring	Jennifer Aniston Kevin Costner Shirley MacLaine Mark Ruffalo Mena Suvari
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	25 December 2005
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
|/ IMDb profile

Rumor Has It... (also known as Rumour Has It... in the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia) is a 2005 comedy film. It stars Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner and is directed by Rob Reiner. It was released in North America on December 25 2005.

Plot

The entire movie is told, presumably from the present, as a flashback to events that happened in 1997. It is also, as flashed on the screen at the beginning of the movie, "Based on a true rumor". In the backstory to this movie, Sarah's grandmother, Katharine Richelieu (played by Shirley MacLaine), had an affair with the much younger Beau Burroughs (played by Kevin Costner), forming the inspiration for the affair in The Graduate between Benjamin Braddock and Mrs. Robinson (whose first name, incidentally, was never mentioned in that movie).

However, the backstory to this movie and The Graduate diverge -- while in The Graduate, Benjamin and Elaine Robinson appear to be headed for the altar, in this movie's backstory, Jocelyn Richelieu (played by Jennifer Bini Taylor in flashbacks) chooses instead to marry Earl Huttinger (played by Richard Jenkins) after a brief affair with Beau. By the time of the movie, however, Jocelyn is dead (she died when Sarah was nine.)

Aniston's character, Sarah Huttinger, travelled from New York City, where she is an obituary and wedding announcement writer, to Pasadena for the wedding of her sister, Annie (played by Mena Suvari). She was accompanied by her fiancé, Jeff Daly (played by Mark Ruffalo). Jeff is worried by Sarah's reluctance to wear her engagement ring, which she said she did to avoid taking attention away from Annie. While in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California, where she grew up, she discovers that her family might have been the inspiration for the novel The Graduate.

During the trip, Sarah did not feel any common identity with the other Pasadenans, who are portrayed as either empty-headed bimbos, glad-handling back-slappers or men bossed around by their wives. After talking to her grandmother at the pre-wedding party, she found out that her mother ran off to Mexico for a week before her own wedding. Jeff "does the math" and points out her parents' wedding was seven months before her own birth. After talking with her mother's best friend, she finds out her mother might have slept with prep school classmate Beau Burroughs.

The timing of Jocelyn's possible affair with Beau, as well as her perceived lack of commonality with the people she grew up with, lead Sarah to suspect Beau may be her true father. Determined to find out more about her past, she decided not to fly back home to New York, but to confront Beau in San Francisco, where Beau was giving a speech. After the speech, which was a standard "rah-rah" speech of the dot-com era, several references are made to events that later happened, such as the merger that formed AOL Time Warner and the launch of Google. She meets Beau, who admitted he had an affair with Jocelyn, but that he could not have been Sarah's father, since Beau suffered "blunt testicular trauma" while playing in a high school soccer game.

Sarah and Beau then went out to talk further, they ate out in china town, drank beer in a local bar and eventually, she (like her mother and grandmother before her), slept with Beau. At first she is horrified, but after some exposure to Beau's glamorous lifestyle, she eventually agreed to go with Beau to a charity ball, and appeared to have started falling in love with Beau. She met Beau's son, and after Beau reassured her that his son was a result of his wife getting pregnant from a sperm donor (as Beau was sterile), Beau kisses her. However, she was caught mid-kiss by Jeff, who had been trying to reach her (but Sarah ignored his calls). After being confronted, Sarah continued to express reluctance to be with Jeff, who then leaves Sarah.

Dejected, Sarah returns to visit her grandmother, who flies into a rage when she learns Beau had slept with a third generation of Richelieus. While at her grandmother's house, her father calls, as Annie had suffered an anxiety attack while flying to her honeymoon and wants to talk to Sarah. Sarah then tells Annie her family's backstory, and reassures Annie that she is truly in love with her husband, Scott. At this point, Sarah realizes she is truly in love with Jeff and wishes to marry him.

Beau drives up, and is confronted by both Katharine and Sarah, who accuse him of chasing Jocelyn's ghost. At this point, Earl comes outside and reveals that he was the soccer player that administered the "blunt testicular trauma" to Beau.

Beau drives off, realizing that he has been chasing ghosts. Sarah and Earl see Annie and Scott off on their "second" honeymoon, and while talking, Earl reveales that he knew, all along, about Jocelyn and Beau's affair. Jocelyn returned to Earl, despite Beau being fun, because Earl was someone she could build a life with. It was on the night that Jocelyn returned to Earl that Sarah was conceived.

Determined to win Jeff back, Sarah flies back to New York City and tells Jeff of her feelings. They eventually make up, on the condition that if they have a daughter, that she be allowed nowhere near Beau.

As the movie closes, we see Sarah and Jeff's wedding.

Cast

• Jennifer Aniston as Sarah Huttinger
• Mark Ruffalo as Jeff Daly
• Shirley MacLaine as Katharine Richelieu
• Mena Suvari as Annie Huttinger
• Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs
• Richard Jenkins as Earl Huttinger
• Kathy Bates (uncredited) as Mitzi
• Christopher McDonald as Roger
• Steve Sandvoss as Scott

Soundtrack

Nellie McKay recorded 6 tracks for the film:

• Black Sheep
• BB Blues
• Just One Of Those Things
• Pasadena Girl
• Face of a Faith
• Baby, You've Got What It Takes

It was released exclusively on iTunes. Curiously, another track of McKay's appeared on her Pretty Little Head album entitied "We Had It Right," in which she sings "Rumor had it wrong." It is unknown if the track, which would have been written around the same time period, was ever connected to the film or it's soundtrack.

References

• Article in November 13 2005 Arts & Entertainment section of the Orange County Register

External links

• Rumor Has It at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rumor Has It at Box Office Mojo
• PopMatters review (12/2005)

•  • [ e] Films directed by Rob Reiner
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) • The Sure Thing (1985) • Stand by Me (1986) • The Princess Bride (1987) • When Harry Met Sally... (1989) • Misery (1990) • A Few Good Men (1992) • North (1994) • The American President (1995) • Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) • The Story of Us (1999) • Alex & Emma (2003) • Rumor Has It... (2005) • The Bucket List (2007)