In 1967, Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft launched a cultural phenomenon when they engaged in a playful May-December tryst in "The Graduate." Unfortunately, the film's cinematic and societal impact is trashed in 2005's "Rumor Has It," an underdeveloped mess of an allusion to the generational classic.

Set in 1997 for the sole purpose of featuring awkwardly huge cell phones and vintage TV appearances by Bill Clinton, "Rumor Has It" concerns the plight of Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston, "Friends"), a struggling journalist suffering from a case of cold feet in regard to her engagement to nice guy Jeff (Mark Ruffalo, "Just Like Heaven"). We know she struggles with her career because she writes obituaries for The New York Times and we know her feet are freezing because she collapses into conniption fits of marital doubt in just about every other scene.

The first of these irritating episodes occurs early in the film while Sarah and Jeff are flying cross-country to the jackpot of uncomfortable family dynamics — her sister's wedding in Pasadena, Calif. While there, Sarah discovers a rumor that her family is the inspiration for "The Graduate," with her eccentric grandmother (Shirley MacLaine, "In Her Shoes") as the original Mrs. Robinson.

Sarah is a "lost" woman, in a "fog of indecision" about who she is and where she's going — characteristics emphasized by many long-faced stares out the window and the aforementioned conniption fits. So she decides to investigate the rumor, hoping it will shed some light on her mysterious late mother and why, exactly, she doesn't fit in with the rest of her Lacoste-clad, tennis-obsessed family. Could it be that by uncovering the secrets of her mother's past, Sarah can finally discover what her own life has been missing? This is the film's central dilemma, but along its execution, the story veers into confusing territories that render the film a mismatched set of choppy, half-contrived plotlines.

Take, for instance, Sarah's pursuit of the man who bedded both her mother and her grandmother, Beau Burroughs. Played unenthusiastically by Kevin Costner ("The Upside of Anger"), Beau is an entrepreneur who immediately hits on Sarah when she first approaches him about the possibility of him being her father. Creepy? It gets worse. Sarah then proceeds to sleep with him, blaming booze for her severe lack of judgment. With his paunchy build and apparent preference for double dipping in the same gene pool, it is difficult to warm up to Costner's character. Add that to the extraordinary lack of chemistry between the possible father-daughter pair and this storyline is left clumsy and uncomfortable.

From this avenue, the film again rearranges itself into a drama between Sarah and her devoted fiancé, Jeff. Given that Sarah's originally presented anxiety problem didn't seem to include an affinity toward infidelity, one is curious why the matter takes such a strong presence in the film. Though Ruffalo, to his credit, performs well in his role as the scorned, unforgiving devotee, the focus the film puts on this storyline without providing convincing history or development is frustrating.

Also frustrating is the film's next transition into a family-drama vehicle, with Sarah situated in several "serious" talks with her one-dimensional father, stereotypically theatrical grandmother and bouncy blonde sister Annie (Mena Suvari, "Loser"). The topics of discussion are boring and predictable, and while they give Sarah the answers she is searching for, they give the audience nothing but empty and obvious resolutions. The convenient bonding that goes on between Sarah and her relatives comes across as forced and deliberate instead of earnest, a quality that could have made this wreck of a film into something sweeter.

It is difficult to decide who is to blame for "Rumor Has It's" shoddy execution of what could have been a plucky, clever story. Is Aniston to blame, with her stiff portrayal of an always-frowning, unlikable Sarah? Is it writer Ted Griffin, for penning such a mess of a script? Or is it director Rob Reiner, who overstuffs his film with manufactured sentimentality and unbelievable premises? Reiner's biggest mistakes, however, are his deviation from "The Graduate's" role in the film and his failure to get audiences invested in the characters.

"Rumor Has It" shows sparks of witty comedy toward the beginning, when the Huttinger family mystery unveils before Sarah's eyes, but as soon as Reiner abandons that storyline, the film is reduced to a confusing weave of dubious circumstances. The characters, too, seem distant and obscure. What do we really know about Sarah in the end? What do we really discover about the relations in her family and how they affect her life? And what, in fact, does all of this have to do with "The Graduate?"

"Rumor Has It" unfairly borrows the concept from the 1967 classic "The Graduate" and molds it into a chaotic hodgepodge of family and character drama that makes this film one ugly rumor.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars