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97 MINUTES | OPENS DECEMBER 25: [BOSTON COMMON + FENWAY + FRESH POND + WEST NEWTON + SUBURBS] Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) writes obituaries for the New York Times and has mixed feelings about her family, her job, and her engagement to a well-adjusted lawyer (Mark Ruffalo). During her ditzy sister’s wedding in Pasadena, Sarah’s saucy, Botoxed grandmother (an irresistible Shirley MacLaine) lets slip a juicy tidbit about her dead mother. Intrigued, Sarah seeks out and falls for the real-life inspiration for The Graduate’s Ben Braddock (Kevin Costner), who slept with her mother and her grandmother and might be her real father. Meantime, her boyfriend gets all worried back in NYC. Rob Reiner’s riff on Mike Nichols’s transgressive classic makes for an interesting trailer, maybe, but nothing in the same galaxy. Retaining some of her Everywoman cachet (e.g., the peach-pit chin when upset), Aniston is right for the role but not for Ted Griffin’s tired script and asks dipshit questions such as "Who am I?" and "Why I am the black sheep?" How about, "Why do so many crappy movies have ellipsis points in the title?"
BY CHRIS WANGLER
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