| One of the
surest signs that your impending wedding
may not be the wisest of life choices is
when your grandpa keels over at your
bachelor party. If that doesn’t
change your mind, try having Gramps
telling you, on his deathbed, that he
never loved your grandmother. Despite
these colossal warning signs, Ben (as in
Affleck, Armageddon) decides to
proceed as planned with his nuptials to
his bland but beautiful fiancée (Maura
Tierney, NewsRadio). As if
that wouldn’t make things stressful
enough, the two New Yorkers decide to
take separate flights to Savannah,
Georgia - where the wedding will take
place - because Ben wants to spend time
with his ailing granddad. His best man
(Steve Zahn, You’ve Got Mail)
stays behind with Ben, but, as
they’re about to board their flight,
bails out because he forgot his shoes and
the all-important rings.
Again Ben
ignores this as an omen and hops on the
plane, even though he is deathly afraid
of flying. He is seated next to a woman
named Sarah (Sandra Bullock, Practical
Magic), who looks like Ally Sheedy
heading back home for her 10-year Breakfast
Club High School reunion. As it takes
off, a seagull flies into the
plane’s engine, causing it to crash
into that lovely "Welcome to
NY" sign that graces the end of the
runway at LaGuardia. This forewarning
also goes unnoticed by Ben. Starting to
get the impression that he’s no
super genius, eh?
Long story
short, Ben saves Sarah and hauls her body
out of the wreckage. After she comes to,
he finds out that she also needs to get
to Savannah tout suite in order to sell a
failing bagel shop. The two decide to
travel together and the following eighty
or so minutes unfolds just like Planes,
Trains & Automobiles, with each
mode of transportation being less
successful than the previous. But their
predicament only seems to invigorate the
dopey Ben except, of course, for that
fact that he (duh!) falls in love with
Sarah. Unfortunately, there is no
"Where’s your hand?"
"Between two pillows."
"Those aren’t pillows!"
scene.
Don’t let
the ads fool you – Forces is
no chick-flick. It’s surprisingly
funny and has a terrific look, thanks to
director Bronwen Hughes (Harriet the
Spy) and cinematographer Elliot Davis
(Out of Sight), and culminates in
an amazing finale that merges a big
outdoor wedding and a powerful hurricane.
As far as acting, Affleck does his best
to make you forget about that abominable
"animal cracker" scene from Armageddon,
while Bullock does okay with her less
meaty role. In spite of the strange
transformation that her character goes
through (from thick black eye makeup and
crazy hair to…well, to Sandra
Bullock), she gives her least annoying
performance in years.
1:49 –
 for some
adult language and adult situation
|
