Rumor Has It…

Directed by Rob Reiner, Rumor Has It… follows Jennifer Aniston’s Sarah Huttinger as she slowly comes to the realization that her family’s past antics prompted Charles Webb to write The Graduate. There’s little doubt that Rumor Has It… fares best in its briskly-paced and thoroughly entertaining first half, as the movie, written by Ted Griffin, initially comes off as a quasi-sequel to The Graduate, both the book and the film, and it’s hard not to get a kick out of the various references to that earlier (and vastly superior, ultimately) piece of work. The compulsively watchable atmosphere is heightened by the actors’ affable efforts and the mostly palpable chemistry between their respective characters, with this particularly true of Kevin Costner’s predictably appealing turn as the inspiration behind The Graduate‘s central protagonist. (Even Aniston manages to make a relatively positive impact here, which is no small feat, certainly.) It’s disappointing to note, then, that Rumor Has It… begins to run out of steam as it progresses into an increasingly conventional third act, as filmmaker Reiner essentially transforms the picture into a by-the-numbers (and kind of tedious) contemporary romcom suffused with some of the genre’s hoariest cliches (including a silly love triangle and pointless fake breakup) – which does, when coupled with a fairly anticlimactic finish, cement the film’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that generally feels like it should be much, much better.

**1/2 out of ****