By Geno McGahee
People are always starting up rumors and that is what this movie is about. Remember the rumors about Richard Gere and the gerbils? Rod Stewart and the stomach pump? You see the point. Gerbils make great pets. No, sorry…got sidetracked. The point is that rumors and gossip are part of life and it’s not always true.
In GOSSIP, we have three college students, Derrick (James Marsden), his love interest Cathy (Lena Headey) and Travis (Norman Reedus). They are going to prove a point that gossip becomes truth, more or less. Derrick wants to shove it right up his pompous professor’s ass. Professor Goodwin (Eric Bogosian), is rather hard on his students and is full of himself.
Naomi (Kate Hudson) is a girl that is quite vocal about her pledge to stay a virgin, making her the perfect story. After she drinks too much and passes out, Cathy begins the story that she had sex with her boyfriend, Beau (Joshua Jackson). Through the game of telephone, the story transforms Naomi into a sex freak, but things get really messy.
Naomi’s friends convince her that she was raped at the party…screwed when she was passed out and she has now involved the police. With her family being a very powerful political group, it didn’t take long for Beau to be arrested and for Cathy and Travis to have second thoughts. Cathy feels the worst and hopes to remedy the situation by going directly to Naomi, but when she mentions Derrick’s name, things erupt. Somehow, Naomi knows Derrick and after some investigation, things are revealed. Naomi was chosen by Derrick for a reason.
GOSSIP was moving along pretty well and I found it very interesting, but then the last 20 minutes flew right into absurdity, BUT that turned out to be a good thing. The shocking ending was so silly, especially when we found out that the Professor had his hand in part of the shocking twist that you have to enjoy it. I was laughing aloud at the end.
GOSSIP is a winner. It is silly overall, but I liked the overall product. Parts were so bad that they were good and the constant smile and overacting by Marsden was enjoyable. I recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
