CAIRO: “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, will always be remembered as one of the classic lines of American cinema. But the words that shot Dustin Hoffman to stardom in The Graduate turn into the nightmare of Jennifer Aniston’s character (Sarah) in Rumor Has It…
As the film title suggests, rumor has it that Sarah’s family is the one that inspired the events of the 1967 movie where a student (Hoffman) has an affair with an older woman and her daughter.
But in the real life version offered by Rumor, which sells itself as a film “based on true rumor, Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) doesn’t dash into the church and take the daughter away before she says, “I do . On the contrary, the girl gets married and Braddock (or Bow Burrows, according to Rumors’ version of events) never shows up.
A few days after accepting a marriage proposal and during her sister’s wedding, Sarah makes the shocking discovery about her family; she decides to embark on the same journey her mother took 30 years earlier. But this journey could end in one of two ways: she would leave her fiancé (Mark Ruffalo) for Burrows (Kevin Costner) or go back to Ruffalo after an adventurous affair.
Regardless of the ending, the plot sounds too familiar. The film follows on the footsteps of the numerous commercial features of the same genre but with its own twist. Except for seeing Aniston, Costner and Shirley McLaine (playing the once-sultry grandmother) in the same film, this light romantic comedy won’t offer anything but a guarantee of laughter.
But if it is romance you are looking for, sans the comedy, then head to the next theater; Memoirs of a Geisha offers a romantic meal served with a melodramatic plot. While Rumor Has It is based on “a true rumor, Memoirs is the screen adaptation of Arthur Golden’s much-acclaimed novel of the same name.
Just to give you an idea of what to expect, Memoirs is an Academy Award-winning film. It received three Oscars for costume design, cinematography and art direction; and three nods for sound editing, sound and original score. It got a Golden Globe for the latter.
It is picture perfect. The Japanese gardens and the beautiful kimonos combined with the insight the film provides into the secret lives of geishas are enough reasons to buy a ticket to the movie.
But before you go, make sure, if you don’t currently know, that you will be watching a film about a Japanese prostitute. The word “geisha doesn’t mean prostitute, but rather an entertainer with musical and dancing skills. Sometimes geishas served as escorts. Prostitution, however, got to be associated with the word as much confusion and mystery still surround the obligations of geishas during their popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries.
With this confusion in the background, Chiyo (Ziyi Zhang) narrates the story of her life as she turns into one of the acclaimed geishas of her time. The confusion that marks the film (with a tendency toward associating prostitution with the work of geishas) is a continuation of the confusion that marred the release of Golden’s book. The novel was based on an interview that Golden did with a real-life geisha, who then sued the writer for mentioning her name and for adding prostitution to the story. When this geisha, Mineko Iwasaki, published her autobiography later, she sold millions of copies, according to Wikipedia.com.
Throughout the film, Chiyo, who adopts the stage name of Sayuri, takes viewers into her aspirations as a child and the reasons that made her one of Japan’s most famous geishas. But the story isn’t only about that; Chiyo discovers love as she discovers her talents.
While the plotline is familiar, the details, the acting and the dialogue provide much needed depth. Watching the film might not be a treat for the book’s readers, (especially since Chinese actors are playing Japanese characters and the Chinese accent contrasts with the concept of uncovering a secret Japanese culture). But, it is not a regrettable experience.
