Even Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner Couldn't Save Their Lone Team-Up Riffing on The Graduate

Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner teamed up exactly once, and it was for a 2005 rom-com that tried to riff on The Graduate. Big swing, soft landing. Rumor Has It... cost a lot, starred a lot, and made... not a lot. It pulled in about $88.9 million worldwide on a $70 million budget (per Box Office Mojo). That is not what you want when your hook is two A-listers and a beloved classic looming over you.

The premise: a meta spin on The Graduate that gets messier than expected

Jennifer Aniston plays Sarah Huttinger, an obituary writer at The New York Times who feels stalled at work and lukewarm about her engagement to her boyfriend, Jeff. They fly to Pasadena for her sister Annie's wedding, where Grandma Katherine (Shirley MacLaine) casually lobs a grenade into the family history: Sarah's late mom vanished to Cabo for a week right before her own wedding, no explanation given.

Sarah does what Sarah does: spirals into detective mode. Aunt Mitsy confirms the getaway and adds a twist — Mom went with a charismatic classmate named Beau (Kevin Costner), who knew Charles Webb, the author of The Graduate. The movie leans hard into a very self-aware idea: that The Graduate was secretly inspired by Sarah's family saga.

From there, Sarah starts connecting dots she probably shouldn’t. She hunts down Beau, worries he might actually be her biological father, finds out he is not... and then sleeps with him anyway. So yes, the movie nods at the classic seduction dynamic and even tries to recreate that charged energy — it just does it with a storyline that ties itself in knots.

Why it doesn’t land

The Graduate had a point of view and swagger for days. It knew exactly what it was, what it wanted to say, and how to say it. It also crushed at the box office, doing more than $104 million domestically and becoming one of the first films ever to cross $100 million (again, via Box Office Mojo). That is legacy stuff.

Rumor Has It... can’t decide if it wants to lovingly honor that classic or poke at it from the sidelines. It settles in the mushy middle. The cast gives it a real shot — MacLaine brings spark, Aniston has that easy, watchable charm, and Costner clicks with her — but the script never finds momentum. The end result is watchable in the moment and hazy five minutes later.

Quick stats and where to watch

• Rumor Has It... (2005) — Directed by Rob Reiner; released by Warner Bros.; stars Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine; worldwide gross about $88.9 million on a $70 million budget (Box Office Mojo); IMDb 5.5; Rotten Tomatoes 21%; available to rent on Apple TV.
• The Graduate (1967) — Directed by Mike Nichols; produced by Lawrence Turman and released by Embassy Pictures; IMDb 8.0; Rotten Tomatoes 87%; streaming free on The Roku Channel.

The bottom line

This was Aniston and Costner’s one and only pairing, a glossy, meta-curious rom-com that keeps glancing at a classic it can’t beat. The idea is clever on paper. On screen, it sits in the middle lane and never hits the gas.

Did Rumor Has It... work for you back in the day, or did the meta twist pull you out of it? Drop your take below.