Star-Studded Cast Amplifies Dark Comedy On Political Crises & Poor Leadership

Canadian directing trio Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson first partnered together with their 2017 experimental film, The Green Fog. Reuniting to present their latest film at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, the directors put together a star-studded cast for a ridiculous, surreal comedy about world leaders encountering a global crisis while getting lost in the woods. As absurd as it sounds, Rumours begins as a hilarious commentary about power on a global scale. However, as the film progresses, it loses its steam thanks to vague storytelling and less successful humor by the end.

The intergovernmental political forum, also known as G7, consists of world leaders Hilda Ortmann (Cate Blanchett) from Germany, Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance) from the USA, Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis) from Canada, Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet) from France, Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird) from the UK, Antonio Lamorte (Rolando Ravello) from Italy, and Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira) from Japan. During a global crisis, they meet at their annual summit to draft a joint statement. When they begin venturing into the woods, danger emerges as they attempt to find safety, resulting in a night they’ll never forget.

Rumours’ Political Satire Is Heavy-Handed On The Humor

Rumours is an utterly entertaining film that invites you to join in on poking fun at the “all talk and no action” style of political leadership. Often presenting itself like a satire, Rumours criticizes poor governance under crisis through perfectly rigid comedy and gags that will have you laughing from the gut within the first 30 minutes. Led by a masterful comedic performance from Blanchett as the German Chancellor, the reason for seeing this film is for the cast’s chemistry. Even when it runs out of comedic steam, the actors are ready to drive their performances home.

At one point or another, we’ve all felt disdain for our political leaders. It’s easy to look on and judge their actions (or non-actions) as unsatisfactory. Hilariously, the writing/directing trio leans into that mindset by crafting a story that should be an easy enough job for the leaders to execute. Somehow, however, they find themselves in the woods, separated and distracted by a crazy phenomenon and an odd zombie apocalypse, all the while a global crisis is occurring. Rumours’ bizarro script, while messy on paper, works up to a point in execution and results in a genuinely fun time.

Rumours Gets Lost In Its Own Muddled Storytelling

This is on top of grasping onto weak explanations

Unfortunately, the last 40 minutes is a huge hurdle to overcome, as the humor quickly dies and is replaced by weird occurrences that never truly get an explanation. And while going the ambiguity route could typically work for an apocalypse-type movie, it is Rumours’ weakest point. The suspense is there, but by the film’s end, the humor begins to resemble inside jokes that we never become privy to. Additionally, a weak AI incorporation near the film’s end feels like a last-minute attempt to cover up the fact that they might have just run out of ideas.

These weaknesses don’t necessarily ruin the momentum built in the first act. Truthfully, I walked out of the feature feeling like I had the privilege of experiencing an experiment full of undead cadavers, a giant brain, and thick fog that maximized the suspense of it all. With the exceptional performances from the cast and several laugh-out-loud moments, this creative film is wildly entertaining. It doesn’t say much about political leadership that we don’t already know, nor does it care to satisfy our need for answers. If anything, that’s what makes Rumours a daring dark comedy — and we must simply let the strange in.