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Everybody is
making such a big deal about Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow and
their highly publicized “are they or aren’t they”
relationship. I
couldn't give a rat’s ass what any Hollywood star does with
their personal life (unless it actually involves a rat’s ass),
but even I have to take my hat off to Affleck and Paltrow for
their performances in Bounce, the new three-hankie
chick-flick starring the former/current/future real-life couple.
I don’t know if their off-screen relationship has
anything to do with it, but their chemistry in Bounce is
terrific. The
Oscar-winning duo seem so comfortable in their roles that it
doesn’t appear that either is acting.
Affleck (Reindeer
Games) stars as Buddy Amaral, a smooth-talking
advertising salesman who appears to be an extension of
Affleck’s Jim Young from Boiler
Room. As
the film opens, he has just landed the Big Account but finds
himself stranded at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport due to a
snowstorm. He meets a married father of two from Los Angeles named Greg
Janello (Tony Goldwyn, Kiss the Girls).
Buddy has a boarding pass for the next flight to L.A. but
gives it to Greg so he can make it home for his son’s Cub
Scouts Christmas tree sale the following day.
Greg’s
plane ends up crashing, killing all 216 people onboard.
His wife, Abby (Paltrow, Duets), assumes Greg is
okay, since he wasn’t supposed to be on that particular
flight. Eventually
she gets confirmation that her husband is dead, leaving her two
sons fatherless. Without seeing a dime from a class-action suit
against the airline, Abby makes ends meet as a struggling
commercial real estate agent.
In the
meantime, Buddy goes on a one-year bender.
It’s hard to tell if he’s just freaked out from
narrowly escaping death or if he’s bothered by indirectly
killing a nice guy with two little kids (the character doesn’t
even acknowledge the latter scenario).
As part of his alcohol rehab, he’s forced to take that
dreaded eighth step, where you’re supposed to make amends with
all the people you hurt as a drunk. He finds Abby, pretends to be a complete stranger, and hooks
her up with a peach of a real estate transaction.
Buddy only means his atonement to be financial, but he
ends up falling for Abby when she orders a grilled cheese
sandwich at a diner after the big closing.
The rest of
the film shows the budding relationship between Buddy and Abby,
but as a viewer, you know it’s only a matter of time before
she finds out about the boarding pass swap that left her a
widow. It's obvious
that Buddy really wants to be honest with Abby but knows the
truth will crush her. The further he gets into the relationship, the worse his
secret becomes. He’s
the first person who has been nice to her without knowing
she’s a widow … except he really does, but has to pretend he
doesn’t.
Bounce’s
ending is kind of a cop-out, compared to the quality of the rest
of the script. I
won’t go into why here, as it could ruin the ending, but it
seems like it could have been mistakenly inserted from a
completely different film.
Admittedly, it’s different than what you’d expect
from a typical chick-flick, but it still doesn’t work.
As I
mentioned earlier, the acting in Bounce is fabulous.
The smart script and direction (from The Opposite of
Sex’s Don Roos) is also much better than average.
Both of Roos’ main characters are more flawed than
we’re used to seeing on the screen, and the flaws aren’t
your typical Hollywood defects.
Roos doesn’t hit you over the head with emotional
stuff, either. You
don’t see the plane crash, and the scene where Abby learns
that her husband was on the flight is surprisingly tasteful,
while most other films would have exploited both of these
scenarios. Credit Atom Egoyan regular Mychael Danna for keeping
his score in check throughout the film.
| 1:49
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for
adult language and sexual content |
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