Bounce
***
Rated on a 4-star scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Bromborough)
Released in the UK by Buena Vista International on January 19, 2001; certificate
12; 106 minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Don Roos; produced by Michael
Beslin, Steve Golin.
Written by Don Roos.
Photographed by Robert Elswit; edited by David
Codron.
CAST.....
Ben Affleck..... Buddy Amaral
Gwyneth Paltrow..... Abby Ganello
Tony Goldwyn..... Greg Janello
Alex D. Linz..... Scott Janello
David Dorfmann..... Joey Janello
Natasha Henstridge..... Mimi
Joe Morton..... Jim Willer
Johnny Galecki..... Seth
Jennifer Grey..... Janice Guerrero
"Bounce" is one of those movies whose
filmmakers have gone to great lengths to create something genuine and whose
ads lead the audience to expect another assembly-line Hollywood product.
Along with my joy at the actual movie, I can't help feel anger at the studio
for marketing it as a dumb romantic comedy. This is a romantic drama -- which
means that, yes, we get to see two people fall in love, but outside the confines
of a formula and though emotion rather than easy humour.
The movie begins with ad exec Buddy Amaral (Ben
Affleck) giving his airline ticket to a guy whose flight has been cancelled,
so he can close the deal with a woman he's been chatting up in the airport
bar. The next day Buddy discovers the plane he was supposed to be on has
crashed, and the guy who took his seat has left behind a wife and two
kids.
Buddy goes into deep depression, emerging from
a boozy abyss one year after the crash, determined to follow all twelve steps
of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. One of them involves making to amends
to everyone he has hurt -- in following this through he also gets the idea
to talk to the family of the dead flyer. The man's wife is Abby Janello (Gwyneth
Paltrow), a realtor he decides to give some business to, which quickly leads
to a friendship, which gradually leads to more, and although Buddy keeps
meaning to tell Abby why he came into her life, he keeps getting distracted
from the revelation, and the longer things go on, it becomes all the harder
to let it out.
The interaction between Buddy and Abby is engaging
and genuine -- Buddy has to be amazingly distracted for it to be plausible
that he would neglect to mention his secret for so long, so the writer and
director, Don Roos, makes damn sure the two characters connect. It's also
good to see the way their relationship develops in realistically small stages,
edging a tad closer to intimacy with every meeting, instead of the standard
Hollywood romance involving a series of endlessly charming encounters that
culminate in one dumb scene where it finally occurs to the man and woman
that -- wow! -- they're in love! Here are two people who have been through
painful times, are more subdued for it, and are not into playing
games.
Roos came to prominence with "The Opposite of
Sex", an edgy and sarcastic comedy from 1998 that I didn't care for but pretty
much everyone else did. The point is that he wasn't the obvious choice to
handle this story -- which is good, because it means he gives it more thought
than someone obvious would have. The dialogue is sharp, with snappy humour
and frank emotion, bringing the characters alive -- we can truly believe
these people are in love, and because of the forces of their personalities
rather than the requirements of the screenplay.
COPYRIGHT© 2001 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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