GOSSIP (Warner Bros.) Starring: James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson, Joshua Jackson, Eric Bogosian, Edward James Olmos, Sharon Lawrence. Screenplay: Gregory Poirier and Theresa Rebeck. Producers: Jeffrey Silver and Bobby Newmyer. Director: Davis Guggenheim. MPAA Rating: R (adult themes, sexual situations, profanity, violence) Running Time: 90 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Hey, did you hear about the film that took on the subject of our collective fascination with gossip and innuendo? It takes a serious look about how any story, told enough times, takes on the ring of truth, even if we have no concrete sense of where the story came from. It challenges us to be more skeptical of the tabloid-ization of our culture, our readiness to pass judgment on situations about which we know little and our obsession with the lurid over the substantive. It uses nuanced performances and taut plotting to give us a chilling glimpse into the way we contribute to warped perceptions and damaged lives every time we pay attention to the rumor mill.
Well, that's the story Warner Bros. would like to see disseminated, anyway. And like most buzz, there's a germ of truth to it surrounded by a whole lot of nonsense. GOSSIP is actually a tawdry youth soap opera full of attractive people doing awful things -- CRUEL INTENTIONS gone to college. The story focuses on a trio of college roommates -- trust fund brat Derrick (James Marsden), introverted aspiring artist Travis (Norman Reedus) and nondescript obligatory female Jones (Lena Headey) -- who are also taking a communication class together. As a class project, the three decide to spread a patently false rumor about a classmate to track its progress. Their target is Naomi (Kate Hudson), spotted at a party wandering drunkenly upstairs with boyfriend Beau (Joshua Jackson). When Jones begins gossip that the two had sex at the party, the tale soon grows out of control. And suddenly Naomi believes the rumor herself, and is pressing charges against Beau for date rape.
Ah, what a deliciously scandalous and utterly exploitative premise. Beneath the meticulously glossy production design and lifestyles-of-the- rich-and-beautiful voyeurism is a bubbling underground river of hypocrisy. It's bad enough that GOSSIP feigns ambiguity just long enough to set up obvious hedonistic villainy. It's even worse that the entire atmosphere of the film proves the filmmakers don't take any of its serious issues seriously. It might be interesting to explore the destructive power of rumor in a setting where you felt there was something at stake. GOSSIP, on the other hand, is instantly disposable foolishness more interested in being sexy than being substantive. A film like this trying to make a case against people succumbing to their basest fascination with sordid stories -- it almost makes you want to laugh in the faces of those responsible.
But there are so many more reasons to laugh at GOSSIP besides its philosophical ineptitude. There's good old-fashioned story-telling ineptitude, like a police detective refusing to follow up a lead because of a story someone told her, or a college student wandering into the library of an exclusive prep school to do some research. There's poor Lena Headey's ineptitude at affecting a New England accent to mask her Old England accent. Then there are the more sublime bits of silliness, like the obligatory torrential downpour for the finale, or the stunning lack of characterization offered to anyone in the film. And the less said about the dialogue, the better.
Some critics of GOSSIP will probably fixate on its final, convoluted plot twist as the film's most ridiculous element, but I'd be inclined to disagree. Buying the ending simply involves believing that one of the film's characters is not just too stupid to be in college, but too stupid to be allowed to live. Considering the rest of the stupidity involved in GOSSIP, that's not a tremendous stretch. I'd like to think that an intelligent film could have been made about the scorched earth effects of our indiscriminate telling of tales. GOSSIP, a film targeted at teenagers, had a chance to be that film.
And if you believe that one, I've got another tall tale for you.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 gossip mongers: 3.
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