Gossip stays in the game until the bottom of the ninth and then blows it. The trick ending is a kick in the teeth. The movie tells a story worth telling, and then cops out with an ironic gimmick that s like a sneer at the craft of storytelling. The Usual Suspects had the grace to earn its surprise ending, but Gossip pulls a 180 just for the hell of it. Chop off the last two or three minutes, fade to black, and you have a decent film.
The premise is promising. We meet three college roommates who decide to start a rumor just to see how far it will go. They spread the news that a couple had sex in an upstairs bedroom at an off-campus party. Problem is, the rich girl in the bedroom was drunk and passed out. She hears the gossip, assumes it s true and brings rape charges against her date. And then it gets a lot more complicated than that, until simply telling the truth won t mend things anymore.