Gossip
***
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Bromborough)
Released in the UK by Warner Bros on August 25, 2000; certificate 15; 91
minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 2.35:1
Directed by Davis Guggenheim; produced
by Robert F. Newmyer, Jeffrey Silver. Written by Gregory
Poirier, Theresa Rebeck; from a story by Gregory Poirier.
Photographed by Andrjez Bartkowiak; edited by Jay Lash
Cassidy.
CAST.....
James Marsden..... Derrick Webb
Lena Headey..... Cathy Jones
Norman Reedus..... Travis
Kate Hudson..... Naomi Preston
Joshua Jackson..... Beau Edson
Marisa Coughlan..... Sheila
Edward James Olmos..... Detective Curtis
Eric Bogosian..... Professor Goodwin
"Gossip" unfolds as a spellbinding
parable about the energy of stupidity, showing how dangerous it is when people
refuse to analyse the things they hear or exercise caution over those they
say. Then it collapses in its final minutes, with a scene of silly action
and a revelatory finale that makes a mockery of the story. I guess I recommend
the movie because it contains stretches of great power. Still, after I got
out of the screening, the first words I wrote on my notepad were those that
Johnny Rotten cried as he stormed out of the Sex Pistols: "Ever get the feeling
you've been cheated?"
The story revolves around three college kids --
Derrick (James Marsden), Jones (Lena Headey) and Travis (Norman Reedus) --
who live in the most upmarket student accommodation I've ever seen, a huge
colourful apartment that must have cost around ten million dollars. They
decide to start a rumour for the basis of a class assignment on the thin
line between news and hearsay, spreading it around that frigid girl Naomi
(Kate Hudson) and her mysterious boyfriend Beau (Joshua Jackson) had sex
at a recent party.
They know this isn't true because Derrick saw
them drunkenly kissing in a bedroom, before Naomi passed out and Beau left
the room to return to the party. Trouble is, their chatter travels across
campus far too effectively, and since Naomi doesn't remember anything about
the night of the soiree, a story soon evolves that Beau raped her while asleep.
Everything spins wildly out of control as sides are taken, cops are called,
old histories are dragged up out of context, and nobody can put things
right.
From here, "Gossip" becomes a thriller about its
particulars, but that's okay, because ideas are still the driving force behind
the story. The movie captures with absolute accuracy how gossip spreads into
maliciousness and then gospel truth, as everyone gives their version of what
they heard, along the way contaminating it with exaggeration, spin and
speculation. I use the word 'gospel' with deliberate irony -- as one of the
characters points out, those holy books are largely just a case of the disciples
writing down rumours the way they heard them.
Step by horrifying and overwhelming step, this
movie had me. But boy, that ending is a cop-out; it's one of those twists
that reveals everything was a big game relying on an unpredictably specific
series of chance encounters and developments. Not only is it implausible
and inappropriate, it's impossible -- it means every conversation in the
movie that Derrick was not present for made no sense whatsoever. "Gossip"
could not be remade, because for the most part this version is perfectly
acted and put together, and the strong moments aren't totally negated by
the time the credits roll. But it's close. Pity.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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