Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

What's with all of these romantic movies structured around tragic accidents? Last year, we had the dull Harrison Ford vehicle Random Hearts. Earlier this spring came the delightful Return to Me, starring Minnie Driver and David Duchovny. This weekend Ben Affleck and Gwenyth Paltrow hook up after her husband dies in a fatal plane crash, and next weekend Bruce Willis rises from the ashes of a train wreck seeking new bliss with his wife. Is it just the Phoenix myth writ large, or maybe Jean-Luc Godard was right and there's something erotic about the catastrophic? Or maybe Christmas isn't something you can buy from a store? Oh wait, that's a different movie.

My guess is that screenwriters are just being lazy. A plane, car, or train crash is an easy way to infuse a character with pathos while still making him or her suddenly available for that new someone. David Duchovny can be in love with his wife but, since she's gone, he's free to pursue Minnie Driver. Gwenyth Paltrow is the wounded widow left behind (with two little boys, to boot), but when Affleck comes along she's ready to hop in bed. 

The accident also helps define the other character. Minnie Driver is somehow more vulnerable with a heart condition. Bruce Willis, in M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, goes seeking a higher calling after he's the only survivor. And Ben Affleck, who begins this weekend's Bounce as a slick, high-powered advertising salesman, has to reevaluate his own path when he fortuitously doesn't board a plane that later crashes. That change in direction includes helping out the widow of the man who took his ticket--Abby Janello, played by Paltrow--and then falling in love with her. Unfortunately, Affleck can't bring himself to tell her about his past until it's too late. 

If this storyline sounds suspiciously like Return to Me, give yourself a gold star. If you're not familiar with that flick, get yourself to a video store and rent it, as it's one of the better mainstream movies of 2000. Bounce, while being a fine film, can't quite measure up to its predecessor, for one very simple reason. It's a star vehicle, or should I say a stars' vehicle. Paltrow and Affleck dominate every scene of the film. There are of course the requisite sidekicks (played by Caroline Aaron and Johnny Galecki) that steer the couple towards each other, but they're pretty minor roles. Return to Me, on the other hand, featured a wonderful secondary cast of characters led by Carroll O'Connor (who plays Driver's dad). They created this fantastic community centered around a neighborhood restaurant that offered both comic relief and genuine feeling. Nothing like that exists in Bounce, and it's the weaker for it. While Affleck and Paltrow are more than adequate--Affleck gives a particularly nice and easygoing performance--the movie sometimes bogs down in its own sentiment.

That's particularly surprising given that it's written and directed by Don Roos, who created 1998's scandalously funny Opposite of Sex. While that film featured some wickedly dark comedy (including a fantastic performance from Lisa Kudrow), Bounce is a straightforward weepy romance. Paltrow spends most of her time looking as if she's about to cry, and even Affleck has a lip-quivering scene. The print advertisements mention that the film is both funny and sad, but I don't remember laughing much.

Nonetheless, Bounce is adequate entertainment if you're in the mood for a date flick. Affleck and Paltrow conjure up some romantic magic (their first kiss in a diner's parking lot is quite nice), and they largely stay above the overwrought emotions that could plague a movie like this. That Bounce fails to measure up to its predecessors doesn't mean it's lacking virtues of its own. 

J. Robert Parks 11/16/2000