Who hasn't been on the receiving end of a rumour? Who hasn't been affected by idle gossip?
You know why gossip is so bad, because it travels at the speed of sound and picks up more random
sound bites as it goes along and begins to change taking a on a life of it's own. A simple kiss
becomes a case of rape. A simple fight turns into murder. A simple blood test becomes...
You get the idea? Well GOSSIP is a movie that studies this human phenomenon.
Three students Derek, Jones, and Travis decide that for their class project they would study the
effects of a gossip. These three college roommates are played by...James Marsden, Lena Headey and
Norman Reedus. The targets of the rumours are Beau and Naomi, a couple who were not having sex
because Naomi wished to wait until she got married. Derek witnesses Beau and Naomi together in a
bedroom where Beau is trying to make love to the drunk Naomi. She refuses and he seems to leave.
Derek tells Jones what happened. She decides that this would be a good test to study the effects of
the rumour.
Jones tells a friend of Naomi a simple fact that is really what happened but within a short time the
story comes back to Jones as an entirely different story, only that it has taken on a life of it's own and
now it has turned dangerous. Naomi is now convinced by the rumours that she has been raped. The
police become involved and eventually charge Beau with rape. When Jones attempts to tell the truth,
she becomes a part of the rumour and no one will believe her including the police who threaten to
charge her with attempting to impede a crime investigation. Things turn really bad when Derek goes
to tell Naomi what happened. THe next thing that happens...Naomi has committed suicide...but the
rumours take over once again and now it is murder.
This film is really scary because you can see this actually happening. We can be such sheep that we will
easily fall into the trap of listening to and perpetuating a rumour. Think about it in your life, and, try to
remember when you told someone a juicy tidbit that came back to you later as an embellished story.
A scene in the movie where a class is sitting, is told some facts and somehow they begin to quickly
believe that Derrick has killed Naomi. Gossip is shown in this film as a vicious monster with a life of
it's own. It grows to dangerous and uncontrollable proportions.
Yes there is a lot more to this story then I am willing to tell you. Pasts are exposed and truths and
charades come to the surface. The story is quite interesting but unfortunately for me I figured out
what was happening and the ending was I found to telegraphed. This is a film definitely worth seeing.
Oh yes, the soundtrack is very good and I know I plan on picking it up.
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