<P> Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun - Times observed, "The plot...sounds like a gimmick . That's because it is a gimmick . But it's a good gimmick . And Rumor Has It works for good reasons, including sound construction and the presence of Kevin Costner...a natural actor with enormous appeal...This is not a great movie, but it's very watchable and has some good laughs . The casting of Aniston is crucial, because she's the heroine of this story, and...has the presence to pull it off ." </P> <P> Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "The movie has that fatal triptych that is becoming Reiner's romantic - comedy signature: drippy sentiment, zany scenes that trivialize the characters and a horror of adventure...needless to say, Rumor Has It fails as a successor to The Graduate . It fails artistically but also philosophically, in that it rebuts the spirit of the earlier film, while offering nothing attractive in its place ." </P> <P> Peter Travers of Rolling Stone awarded it one out of four stars, calling it a "comic turd" and adding, "The creepy script, by T.M. Griffin, is directed by Rob Reiner in a sleepwalking daze that Costner emulates by rotely repeating his performance in The Upside of Anger and in the process squeezing all the juice ." </P> <P> Brian Lowry of Variety said, "As muddled in most respects as its title, Rumor Has It...begins with an intriguing premise...but it devolves into a bland romance spiced with too little comedy...There's a germ of an idea here, but Reiner and Griffin race through the plot beats so rapidly that poor Sarah seldom has time to breathe, which also describes the movie...(Aniston) never settles down enough to offer more than a shrill whine and pained expression ." </P>

Who plays the grandma in rumor has it