Leaders from the key democracies around the world convene at a lakeside estate for the annual G7 conference where they are tasked with drafting the official statement in response to the global crisis.  Their work is interrupted when night comes and staff at the estate have all mysteriously disappeared.  In their search for help, they discover that the “bog bodies,” naturally mummified corpses of an indigenous people, have resurrected and are now roaming the grounds, dancing and pleasuring themselves under the moonlight. 

Evan Johnson writes Rumours, a politically aimed dark comedy he co-directed with Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin.  The 104-minute film debuted out of competition at the Cannes International Film Festival and was acquired by Bleecker Street Media for stateside distribution.  Given only a two-week, limited run and well under 1,000 screens, the film managed to eke out half a million dollars in box office receipts which is impressive given the lack of marketing and tough concept to sell to audiences entrenched in a contentious election cycle, but is surely not enough to make up just the salaries of the star-studded cast that this projects beguilingly attracted. 

With the likes of Cate Blanchett as Hilda Ortmann, the Chancellor of Germany, Charles Dance as Edison Wolcott, the President of the United States, and Denis Ménochet as Sylvain Broulez, the President of France, the cast list is more than enough to lure in a curious audience.  It also extended to include Roy Dupuis as Maxime Laplace, the Prime Minister of Canada, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Cardosa Dewindt, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rolando Ravello as Antonio Lamorte, the Prime Minister of Italy, Takehiro Hira as Tatsuro Iwasaki, the Prime Minister of Japan, and Zlatko Burić as Jonas Glob, the President of the European Union, with Alicia Vikander rounding out the ensemble in a supporting role as Celestine Sproul, the Secretary-General of the European Commission.  With such a broad cast and a brief runtime, the characters never really feel as developed as they need to be, and Johnson wisely skirts the temptation to make the caricatures too overtly on the nose, but this lack of meaningful specificity means that the film drags on, a sensation that is only magnified by the fact that its situational humor is not stepped up to compensate. 

The strange thing is, though, that the humor works best when Rumours is not trying to nail down anything specific.  It feels as if the thesis of the film – though “thesis” here is a lofty assumption – is that the global leaders are bumbling and out of touch.  It is a nearly universal frustration, so as they work with grave seriousness about an ambiguous crisis, it does elicit a mild chuckle from audiences.  Even the absolute refusal to acknowledge Dance’s clearly British accent as the President of the United States works in this loose comedy that keeps our expectations in check of what we are in for, but low as they are, Johnson lets us down.   

Where Rumours begins to fall apart is in its expansion.  Beyond just the bog bodies that are too loose to be properly defined, and the titular rumors that this will be Maxime’s final summit amid growing accusations of infidelity, there is a giant brain in the middle of the woods which Celestine worships and later sets on fire.  These are neat enough images that feel deeper, and are humorous, but they lead nowhere.  The final statement is little more than a roll call of the various inside jokes made across the summit, but audiences will be hard-pressed to care as Maxime delivers it with utmost sincerity.  The scene before the delivery of the statement works, though, as it finds Hilda distributing gift bags to the participants for another job well done with a gleeful smile on her face; a congratulating parting gift for having accomplished absolutely nothing, a reward for wasting resources.  In the film’s attempt to deepen and expand itself, it undoes its own comedy and substitutes it for hollow, empty nonsense. 

Rumours is an absurdist look at some of the most powerful institutions in the world coming at a time when reality feels most absurd, but the elements do not always come together on the page or on the screen to form a coherent narrative.  This vagueness may be in an effort to mimic the vagueness of promise offered by leaders who want to cast as wide a net as possible to secure and succeed in their campaigns, but comedy and satire require structure and precision which this film ultimately lacks.  Johnson cannot make up his mind if he is looking to indict the leaders or the followers, and is wishy-washy in his prosecution of both so any rightful contempt towards either side which would cause audiences to take a moment to weigh the concepts of ideas of the film against their own experience never materializes.  Without the cathartic equivalent in the final act, the satire is toothless.