What a beautiful movie!

Brilliant and touching

A Major Disappointment

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Let's face it, our culture is fascinated with gossip. It seems it is a national pastime. How, otherwise, can we explain the existence of glossy magazines and tabloids that deliver all the dirt to its readers. "Gossip", directed by Davis Guggenheim, and based on a screenplay by Gregory Poirier and Theresa Rebeck, a playwright on her own right, exploits the premise of how damaging to anyone an innuendo can be, when it is perceived as the truth.The idea of spreading a nasty rumor to see how far it gets, is not a novel idea. Fortunately for the creators, the movie works out better than one thought up to the contrived finale. There are things that don't make sense, but one goes along just for the ride. If anything, the moral of the story is that the joke backfires and it comes to haunt the arrogant Derrick Webb right in his face.We enjoyed Lena Headey's take on Cathy Jones. This young actress deserved better than what she was given here. James Marsden has some good moments. The cast looks as though out of a colorful ad for J. Crew, or one of those catalog stores.

Gossip is a glossed-over movie that if you ask people about it, they'll talk about Gossip Girl. I'll admit, I saw it because James Marsden was in it, and I was surprised by his edgy role. Gossip centers around three college students, Cathy, known to everybody as "Jones", who seems like a normal college girl, Travis, the off-the-wall artist who has a different mind which he shows in his work, namely his room, and Derrick, the arrogant, quick- talking schmoozer who can lie his way in or out of any situation, who owns the apartment the three share. What starts as Derrick defending a girl in a class, where he states, "We're people, and we do what we do... I like gossip. It's fun." This leads Jones to come up with their project for the class; start a rumor, track it and see where it leads. That night, the three attend a party. Jones is taking pictures outside when she bumps into rich girl Naomi, getting out of a town car with her boyfriend, Beau. Jones takes a picture of them going inside then scoffs once they've left ("Who arrives to a party in the meat-packing district in a town car?") When Derrick and his date are in the bathroom while she gets sick, Derrick sees Naomi and Beau making out. Beau tries to push Naomi, but she stops him. Shortly after, from having too much to drink, she passes out and Beau leaves. Derrick sees this and gets the idea for their rumor. The next morning, hungover Jones is hesitant to go through with it; Derrick teases her about not being able to be mean ("You're from Plymouth, with the Pilgrims and there were no mean Pilgrims") so Cathy tells Naomi's best friend she slept with Beau. Naomi hears the rumor and is afraid Beau raped her. Things go wrong. Beau gets arrested, Cathy starts doubting the plan, Naomi can't stand to hear Derrick's name, and Derrick doesn't tell the truth until he's absolutely backed into a corner. Was Gossip a world-turning film? Probably not. Do more than a handful of people know it exists? Again, probably not. Did it really need to be rated R? Once again, probably not. But it's a good movie to see once. It's edgy and a little dark but there are some dare-I-say cute moments. If you see it in the video store or better the library, rent it. It's only an hour and a half long.

A vicious rumour is spreading like fire through the university, three journalism students planted the story, hoping to trace how it changes as it burns its path; but what goes around comes around.With a young and talented cast, including James Marsden, Lena Heady, Norman Reedus and Kate Hudson; Gossip deserves more credit than it seems to have received.The story is full of twists and is genuinely compelling to watch and easy to relate too; the direction is pretty stylish and achieves the necessary feel for the plot to play out, and the cast all contribute with solid performances.It's either been overlooked or harshly criticised by far too many people, come on! It's a good thriller. 7/10

Gossip (2000): Starring James Marsden, Kate Hudson, Joshua Jackson, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Edward James Olmos, Eric Bogosian, Sharown Lawrence, Mif, Marissa Coughlan, Kwok-Wing Leung, Poe, Vicky Lambert, Noam Jenkins, Kenya Massey, Stephanie Mills, Raven Dauda, Kristin Booth, Novie Edwards, Shanly Trinidad, Samantha Espie, Christopher Ralph, Kristen Holdenried, Robin Brule, Debora Pollitt, Sadie LeBlanc, Elisabeth Guber, Balazs Koos, Roman Podhora, Marc Hickox, Bill Lake, Jessica Greco, Aleksia Landeau, David Nichols, Marc Cohen, Sanjay Talwar, Norma Dell'Agnese, Charles Guggenheim, Marion Guggenheim, John Wills Martin, Meeka Schiro...Director Davis Googenheim, Screenplay Gregory Poirier, Theresa Rebeck.Director Davis Googenheim and screenwriters Gregory Poirier and Theresa Rebeck released "Gossip" in the spring of 2000, but this film was not a big hit at the box office and consequently went straight to video, cable and standard TV. The premise ? In an unidentified major Univeristy, presumably in the US, a group of college classmates, who are also roommates, take on a human/social experiment about the nature of gossip. They spread a rumor about the richest girl on campus, pretty, blonde Naomi Preston (Kate Hudson) who was once the girlfriend of the guy who is now exploiting her, Derrick Webb (James Marsden). Derrick and his wickedly careless and insensitive, cruel friends/roommates Cathy and Travis (Lena Headey and Norman Reedus) begin to spread the gossip concerning Naomi's date rape experience as well as other vicious and damaging lies. Before long, the entire school believes the lie and Naomi finds herself in the middle of a media circus and a public courthouse trial case. But she is determined to expose her colleagues and their malicious experiment and scheme. She consults investigators, among them Detective Curtis (portrayed by Latino actor Edward James Olmos) to seek out those who wronged her. Before long, Derrik, Cathy and Travis find themselves in big trouble and attempt to cover up their evil deed. This may not be a very powerful film or even a very great one, but it has a truthfulness and realism, played out with a "what if" kind of scenario that really carries the film, not to mention the great cast of actors giving it their all, despite being very young and good looking actors. As such, this film is for a young audience. At times, it appears as if it's an intensely dark soap opera intense and dark soap opera in which good looking people set out to harm others. In this case, it's a lot like "Cruel Intentions" ,which had been in theaters only a year earlier in 1999 (it had also starred Joshua Jackson and other hot young stars)which was in itself a modern take on the French novel and film "Dangerous Liasions". Clearly, the success of that film made this film possible. This is a very disturbing film and it's not suitable for even pre-adolescents, despite the young cast. It's really a dark drama about young adults but it's adult nonetheless. There is enough R rated material here to indicate that is intended to be viewed by a mature audience- violence, graphic sex (including rape) and profane language. Even with all this, the college classroom scenes are by far what provides the film with meaning. The professor and his student's conversations and eventual reactions to the rumor experiment is proof that people do indeed love gossip, but it's harmful and it dehumanizes and corrupts our society. The battle of the sexes discussion is also quite interesting and very well-handled. But the movie's heart lies in the fact that Derek Webb is the type of corrupt young man that actually exists out there and may be getting away with crimes, and all the more so because he looks harmless and is an attractive white male. Thus, this film is a caution tale, though this film is hardly Lifetime material, possibly because it has the independent Hollywood film signature all over it. I hope this movie opens people's eyes about gossip and about lies and how to value the truth which is the greatest human gift of all.