Gossip film review

certificate_15

GOSSIP

We all enjoy a good gossip, gleefully raking over the embers of someone else's misfortune. Most of the time, it seems harmless enough, but what happens when the gossip mutates into something far more hurtful?

That's the dilemma faced by flatmates Derrick (James Marsden), Jones (Lena Headey) and Travis (Norman Reedus), three college students on a Communication Studies course who decide to plant a rumour and see how it festers.

The trio falsely claim that the notoriously chaste Naomi (Kate Hudson) had sex with her boyfriend Beau (Joshua Jackson) at a party. Within hours, the gossip has made its way up and down the hallways of campus, and everyone is labelling Naomi a hypocrite for wearing her virginity on her sleeve, then secretly bedding Beau.

In truth, Naomi and Beau did not sleep together at the party: she passed out from consuming too much booze and he left her to sleep off her hangover. Derrick, Jones and Travis know that, so does Beau. Unfortunately Naomi does not, and she jumps to the conclusion that Beau must have raped her while she was unconscious, and files charges with the police.

Unable to stand by and see an innocent young man go to jail for a crime he did not commit, Jones sets about clearing Beau's name. But she discovers disturbing secrets about one of her housemates which throws a completely different light on their current predicament.

Despite some truly appalling dialogue and overwrought acting by all concerned, Gossip is something of a guilty pleasure: a trashy little number that you feel almost embarrassed to like, compelling you to care for its central protagonists using a potent cocktail of sex, confrontation and last-gasp twists.

Gregory Poirrier and Theresa Rebeck's screenplay sets up an intriguing premise but, half an hour in, abandons any lofty pretentions for the histrionics of a by-the-numbers thriller, complete with leading players who are not what they seem and an ugly secret lurking in the school yearbooks.

Marsden oozes charisma as rich and handsome ladies man Derrick who would dearly love to get between Jones's sheets, while English rose Headey makes for an appealingly feisty heroine. Reedus's grungy artist (who can afford rather a lot of expensive equipment on a meagre student's income) is a bit of an odd-ball, creating weird multi-media installations inspired by Naomi's supposed rape.