If you ever wondered if a backstory came with 1967’s classic The Graduate, I bear good news! 2005’s Rumor Has It… offers a fictionalized view of this topic.

Set in 1997, Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) struggles to figure out her own identity. She heads home to California for her younger sister Annie’s (Mena Suvari) wedding and takes her fiancé Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) home with her. However, she seems unsure about this relationship and doesn’t want to announce her engagement just yet.

During a discussion with her grandmother Katharine (Shirley MacLaine), Sarah learns of her late mother Jocelyn’s pre-wedding jitters, and this leads to suspicions of an affair with Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner). This may or may not have inspired The Graduate - and Beau may or may not be her biological father.

Aniston has an awful lot of talent, especially as a comedic actor. Why did she find it so tough to land a decent project?

If you look at her non-Friends résumé, you’ll find lots of chaff and little wheat. Rumor doesn’t qualify as a bad flick, but it only occasionally lives up to its promise.

Honestly, the concept exists as the best thing about it. A story that reveals the facts behind The Graduate sounds fun, and it opens up many amusing possibilities – only a few of which Rumor actually explores.

It sporadically ties in with its inspiration, but too much of the film proceeds as a fairly standard romantic comedy. There’s not a ton of cleverness on display here.

A lot of the trouble comes from the characters. For the first part of the film, they exist as little more than quip machines. They have a falseness about them, as if they live in Comedy Land and don’t connect with reality.

As Rumor progresses, it turns more dramatic and tries to make the personalities deeper. This doesn’t work due to the lightness of the prior moments.

I’m not saying that films can’t pull off this change. I am saying that this one fails to succeed when it attempts to create more three-dimensional characters.

At least the actors give it their best. Aniston does little more than play a variation on Rachel here, though I can tell that her chops improved over the years, as she shows greater impact in her dramatic bits than we ever saw on TV.

The rest of the cast seems just fine, and as I alluded earlier, we certainly find a nice roster of performers. Granted, MacLaine doesn’t actually act, as she just imposes her Grand Dame Diva will on parts and shoots for the campy comedy. That’s enough for this flick, I suppose.

But it’s not enough to allow Rumor Has It… to turn into anything memorable. The film wastes a clever premise as it slowly degenerates into a very average drama. It’s not so bad that I can claim it truly wastes its talent, but it sure doesn’t take advantage of its potential.

Rumor Has It… appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. A replica of a disc from the format’s early days, the image looked inconsistent.

Sharpness usually seemed fine but not great. Wider shots tended to see a bit soft and the rest felt adequate to good in terms of delineation but not especially precise.

I noticed no concerns with jagged edges or shimmering and the movie lacked edge haloes. Print flaws failed to manifest but artifacts gave the proceedings a somewhat noisy look.

Colors leaned amber, especially in terms of skin tones that left everyone awfully tan. Still, the hues seemed well-depicted and without issues.

Black levels were reasonably deep and dense, and low-light shots were clear and appropriately visible. This was a watchable but unexceptional transfer.

Rumor Has It… offered a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that exemplified the minor charms of the “comedy mix”. I also deducted points due to the absence of a lossless track.

Not much popped up in this quiet piece. The front channels heavily dominated the flick, and they only sporadically offered much life of their own.

Music provided pretty good stereo imaging, and effects added general ambience. In regard to the surrounds, I suppose they added some light reinforcement of the music and effects.

However, I felt hard-pressed to cite any examples where I noticed substantial audio from the rear. This was a subdued mix.

Although the scope of the track appeared bland, the quality of the audio was fine. Speech came across as concise and well defined, and I discerned no concerns related to edginess or intelligibility.

Music showed good range and dynamics, as the score was bright and distinct throughout the movie. Despite their small role in the presentation, effects also seemed clean and accurate.

The mix featured acceptable bass response and clarity overall. It simply failed to ever present an engaging soundfield, so it earned only a lackluster “C+“.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD from 2006? Both came with identical Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, a factor that came as a ding for the BD due to the absence of lossless material.

Despite the age of the transfer involved, visuals did upgrade the DVD in terms of colors and delineation. This never became a tremendous step up and a brand-new scan and encoding would improve it more, but the BD still fared better than the DVD did.

The disc includes the movie’s trailer and no other extras.

Rumor Has It… doesn’t live up to expectations. It throws away an intriguing concept and ends up as a relentlessly mediocre combination of comedy and drama. The Blu-ray offers decent but mediocre picture and audio along with virtually no extras. Skip Rumor and watch The Graduate instead.

Note that this 2025 Blu-ray reissues the movie’s prior release in 2006. The 2025 BD simply reproduces the same disc from 19 years earlier.