TIFF 2024: Rumours Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Taking shots at political leaders never gets old. Though they are often easy targets for satire, spending much of their tenure in the public eye while having their actions always under a microscope, pointing out the sheer ridiculousness of it all remains simple yet effective. Rumours continues that strategy to great effect, raising the level of absurdity by taking the story in a supernatural direction. The story is centered around the latest meeting of the G7, featuring the leaders of the seven biggest economies, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in Germany. German Chancellor Hilda Ortmann (Blanchett), President of the United States Edison Wolcott (Dance), Canadian Prime Minister Maxime Laplace (Dupuis), President of France Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Prime Minister of Italy Antonio Lamorte (Ronaldo Ravello), and Prime Minister of Japan Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehro Hira), meeting to draft a join statement on some unidentified global crisis, found themselves trapped in a forest under mysterious circumstances.

A satire of the pomp and pageantry of the political process, the leaders put on a show in front of the cameras and with reporters but behind the scenes, they were at ease and not having to play up their public personas. There would be much more going on between them than what was known publicly, however, it virtually did not matter. Ultimately, these leaders have been around the block a few times and by now, many have become numb to the process while others took it more seriously. The contrast between experience and sincerity and the perspectives that came out of it were silly and funny. Playing the G7 leaders as out of touch with their people, spewing empty platitudes and half-baked ideas, they clearly did not know what they were doing. Turning up the ridiculousness, they were trapped in a forest and they were not alone. Having to work together to find a way out of whatever was happening, the question was could their various personalities and quirks coexist long enough for them to make it? Also, will that joint statement be drafted?

The best part of Rumours is the performances and chemistry of the aforementioned cast. The script does not pull its punches in its satire and while it may not be the most original or subtle, it was absolutely hilarious and the cast were up for all of it. Each having their standout moments, the biggest were easily Blanchett, Dance, Ménochet as the bumbling French President, and Dupuis as the suave, sensitive, and emotional Canadian Prime Minister.

In the end, Rumours is a wild and hilarious political satire that doesn’t pull its punches as it slowly devolves into deranged darkness.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.