GOSSIP (2000)
Grade: D
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Screenplay: Gregory Poirier, Theresa Rebeck
Starring: Lena Headey, James Marsden, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson, Eric Bogosian, Joshua Jackson, Sharon Lawrence, Edward James Olmos, Marisa Coughlan
GOSSIP is one of those pictures where everything looks shinned and armoraled; the set design, the actors, the lighting, even the one bathroom we're invited into looks eloquently polished as if it were being prepared for royalty. With its whirling camera work and migraine-commercial slo mo's of shattering wineglasses, the picture has the substance-be-damned texture of a Jerry Bruckheimer production. This is the school of film making brought into the mainstream by MTV, brought to film by FLASHDANCE and like that abomination it’s probably a good idea that the film makers chose to film it in the cut and paste montage mode of music videos and beer commercials, for GOSSIP has little to offer besides a somewhat clever premise (which makes its terrible execution appear that much worse) and its stunning looks which contrast with the its more sordid intentions.
That premise involves a trio of noxious college kids who, buoyed by a class lecture on the media rumor mill (but mostly out of boredom), decide to start their own rumor. They spread a nasty one, claiming that a prissy rich girl (Kate Hudson) had sex with her boyfriend (Joshua Jackson), which I suppose is really big news considering that the rich girl is into this whole "abstinence thing". Soon the rumor is speedily making its way from one person to the next and before long we have a murder mystery on our hands. The easily identifiable problem facing the film is the actual rumor. It's hard to believe that anyone would find it juicy enough to float being that it's such an insignificant trifle. Nervously I'll add that I sincerely believe with all of my faith in humanity that nobody would be so fascinated by something so damn frivolous.
The picture has a similar feel to CRUEL INTENTIONS, another teen sleazefest that featured impossibly sophisticated youngsters playing devilish games on one and other, though it doesn’t have that film's playful camp-cleverness. GOSSIP takes itself rather seriously going so far as to include one of those dramatic endings where shocking twists come at us at every turn and, for extra effect, a veritable monsoon lurks outside so naturally the characters must flee the dry comfort of their state of the art apartment to be pelted by a cavalcade of wetness all while cursing and shouting at each other.
While watching GOSSIP I considered how the roles of sexually mature teenagers in the movies have metamorphosed so drastically in the decades since such themes were beginning to be dealt with. It's interesting to note (well, to me anyway) that in the sixties sex play between young uns was viewed primarily as cautious experimentation with the characters who engaged in this often punished for their sexual inclinations as in ODE TO BILLY JOE which featured a supposedly heterosexual character's suicide following experimentation with another man or in LAST SUMMER where innocent experimentation between sexually adventurous teens leads to rape, and one must include the countless mad slasher pictures in which the randiest teens are always dispatched. In film today the simple act of sex (or even casual flirtation) seems to have lost its edge, its ability to stun and excite, so now we are given characters so bored with sex that they must resort to cruel mind games in order to spice up the act. In BODY SHOTS young adults seem to use sex as a drug, manipulating each other into bed just to feel something. By the end their inclinations lead to a possible rape where one of two people involved is lying. In GOSSIP the sexual rumor is spread without so much as a shrug. These films have been mostly rejected by audiences and critics in favor of raunchy around the edges but sweet in the center films like AMERICAN PIE which, for all its exaggerations, is much closer to the way teenagers treat sexuality than anything to be found in GOSSIP or CRUEL INTENTIONS. (And that's far more thought than anyone should waste on films such as these.)
The young actors are all fine, though their work is relegated to picture and sound bites in between crashing music and rapid tableau's of images. The performers give us surface level characterizations (it'd be amazing if they managed to sneak anything of substance past the director and/or screenplay). Lena Headey (MRS. DALLOWAY) is a British actress just barely masking her accent who, with her hair tussled and trendily curled and her perpetual look of quizzical playfulness, has the innocent sexuality of Neve Campbell. Unfortunately I don’t recall a thing about her character other than her refined and unbelievably costly fashion sense. She doesn't register, though the costume designer should get some kind of oddball MTV Movie Award considering that everything we know about her is solely from the look of her. Norman Reedus plays an "artistic" type with peach fuzz and a Calvin Klein ad-ready haircut who speaks in a Mickey Rourke mumble. He plays the part like Edward Scissorhands looking awkwardly around as if seeing the world for the first time. James Marsden is the hunky stud, playing a more vicious version of the cocky jocks Tom Cruise used to play so frequently in the 80's. I can't say much more than that he doesn't really embarrass himself. Joshua Jackson walks through a minor role, as does Kate Hudson who has the same sleepy eyed sensuality as her mother, Goldie Hawn.
The impressions left by the adults are either minor or negative and minor; Eric Bogosion shows up as the smarmy professor, acting droll and flippant as if he'd rather be fishing; Sharon Lawrence (NYPD BLUE) plays another cynical cop; here she's given the stupidest scene in the movie where she ignores evidence because (apparently) it isn't what she wants to hear; Edward James Olmos is a cold cop with a hard-edged delivery and Toronto is the city that desperately attempts to fill in for New York to little avail.