Rumor Has It... (2005)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writer: Ted Griffin
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Mark Ruffalo, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mena Suvari, Richard Jenkins
Genre: Rom-Com

Rumor Has It... has an interesting and original premise. A family which, rumor has, resulted in a bestselling book and a hit-movie starring Dustin Hoffman as a young boy being seduced by an elder woman. Yes. We're talking about The Graduate. Tagline? Based on a true rumor. Sadly the execution is anything but impressive, but I got to give them points for the premise.

I'm not as opposed to Aniston as many others, I do enjoy Ruffalo on a regular basis and the addition of MacLaine and Suvari has potential. The rest of the cast I'm pretty indifferent to, with the exception of course of freaking Dancing With Wolves Costner. I didn't brag much about Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel the other day, but they got a scene involving Costner, and I got to say I support their idea 100 %. Not going to spoil it for those not seen it yet, but those who have sure knows which idea I refer to. Oh, by the way: Costner is, as usual, awful in this movie.

The problems with this movie is basically the lack of focus. They don't seem to know what kind of movie they should make. A comedy? A drama? A Rom-Com? I know these genres can easily be mixed into good movies, but they can also completely lose out on the direction they take, and that's the case here. Reiner seems to have had huge thoughts, but every fifth minute decided to go in another direction, again.

The movie starts with Sarah (Aniston) going home to Pasadena for her younger sister's (Suvari) wedding. With her is her fiancee Jeff (Ruffalo), but their engagement is new and she doesn't want to steal the thunder from her sister by announcing it prior to her wedding. At least that's what she tells Jeff. In truth she's walking around in a fog, constantly confused and out of touch. A conversation with her grandmother (MacLaine) during the rehearsal dinner give a possible explanation to everything she's worried about. She might be the result of her deceased mother's affair with the boy from The Graduate, rather than in family with her father and sister which she feels completely distanced from. Sarah starts chasing down the real The Graduate (Costner), but from there the movie usually picks the wrong paths on every single decision they made during the shoot.

I thought both Aniston and Ruffalo did well all things considered, Costner was, as mentioned, awful and unbelievable, and Suvari and Jenkins was pretty much stage props. It's been a while since I've seen a really good part from MacLaine, but her portrait of Sarah's grandmother is very well executed here.

Management (2008)

Director: Stephen Belber
Writer: Stephen Belber
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn
Genre: Rom-Com

Management is a rather sweet little thing within its genre. This must not be mistaken for good, but rather with some great quirky moments along with the sweet parts, together managing to elevate it above the average. Most of all it's heartfelt and quite original within its more typical premise.

Sue (Aniston) is a traveling art saleswoman, staying overnight at a motel in one of the small towns of her district. Mike (Zahn) is the motel-owners son, and their acting night-manager. His small town inspired naive and puppy-like crush on her, collides with her worldly ways along being used to male attention.

Writer and director Stephen Belber have found the right notes in several scenes, but also proves he still lacks a lot in focus, discipline and eye to cut scenes that doesn't work. For an uneven movie, I truly enjoyed it more than its quality should suggest. Much of that is thanks to Belber's, equal-to-Mike, naive ability to capture quirky scenes and almost eccentric personality ways to grow both the characters and the story.

There's a great chemistry between our two leads. They manage to get right both the initial weird unbalance, and the later nuanced changes. I find Aniston is undervalued in general, and takes a lot more criticism than she deserves. Whenever she actually got a partner to act of like here, she does very well. Whenever she's stuck with the amateurish likes of Gerard Butler in The Bounty Hunter, that's a lot more difficult to elevate to a decent level. Zahn is also doing very well here as the naive Mike, and we meet Woody Harrelson in a fun ex-punk supporting role. In addition Management have managed to turn The New Pornographers' song Adventures in Solitude into a great theme song for the movie.

Marley & Me (2008)

Director: David Frankel
Writer: Screenplay: Scott Frank, Don Roos Novel: John Grogan
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner, Alan Arkin, Haley Bennett
Genre: Drama, Family, Comedy, Romance

I believe there's two points of view for Marley & Me. One is as a simple family story and nothing special about it. The other is for all those who's had or has a pet they love dearly, and for those this is definitely worth the time.

I'm one of the second group and while its not a great movie, I don't regret a second of the time I spent on it. I might even do it again one day, and that's rarely the case with movies scoring below my sevens.