Susan Granger’s review of “BOUNCE” (Miramax Films)
The buzz on this film revolves around the off-screen romance that ignited between its co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck – which may be helpful at the box-office since what’s on-screen isn’t anywhere near as interesting. In a by-the-numbers, soap opera-like screenplay, a man and a woman meet, fall in love, fall out of love and then find each other again. The story begins a few days before Christmas at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where stranded passengers gather at a bar. When Buddy (Affleck), a womanizing ad man, hooks up for the night with a sexy babe (Natasha Henstridge), he gives his ticket on the next LA flight to a devoted husband named Greg (Tony Goldwyn) – only to discover later that the plane crashed in Kansas. Greg is dead, leaving behind a wife, Abby (Paltrow), and two young sons (Alex D. Linz, David Dorfman). Riddled with guilt, even after a year in alcohol rehab, Buddy eventually seeks out Abby, ostensibly as one of her real estate clients. Indeed, he does make a deal for an expensive property from her, but he doesn’t tell her their karmic connection. Eventually, of course, she discovers how a twist of fate intertwined their lives and they all have to deal with its devastating moral and emotional consequences, ruminating on love and acceptance. Writer/director Don Roos, who helmed the biting black comedy, “The Opposite of Sex,” goes strictly mainstream here – and the dialogue is strictly from the mall, liberally peppered with the ubiquitous expression: “you know”. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bounce” is a predictable, formulaic 5, evocative of last year’s dud romantic drama, “Random Hearts,” with Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott-Thomas. Admittedly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck have more sexual chemistry.
