Planes, trains, and automobiles. Wait a minute, Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock aren’t Steve Martin and John Candy trying to get home for Christmas. Let’s try this again. Hurricanes, plane crashes, and lying oh my! OK, that works better for me.

Forces of Nature is a movie that you probably have seen under a different title many times before, but with a few things changed here and there. Nonetheless, the main theme is a man is engaged to be married, but leading up to the ceremony the groom discovers another woman and instantly finds himself in a bind. In this case, Ben Holmes (Ben Affleck, 200 Cigarettes) is that guy, a jacket copywriter from New York City who is about to head to Savannah, Georgia to marry Bridget (Maura Tierney, Primary Colors). However, as his plane from NY is taking off, some birds fly into the engine, causing the plane to crash at the end of the runway without any serious injuries. So now Ben must still get to Georgia, but he won’t step on a plane. Instead he hooks up with a person he met on the plane and in the airport, the lovely Sarah Lewis (Bullock, Practical Magic), to try and drive down to his wedding. Those two are too late to get a rental car, but they find a nice guy named Vic (Jack Kehler, Lethal Weapon 4) who did get a car and is willing to share the car as long as they share the cost. Sounds great (also sounds a little like Ben Stiller in There’s Something About Mary), only Vic feels the need to smoke pot, which gets them all arrested. Since the dope wasn’t there’s Ben and Sarah are released, but still have no way to get to Savannah. Next they hop on a train, but even that turns into a disaster as they failed to transfer to the correct cars at one stop. Then they get their money stolen at a Laundromat, so they have to start getting creative in their attempts to get to Savannah. It is during this time that Ben discovers that he has some doubts about getting married, and is becoming attracted to the wild and fun loving Sarah. Also we discover that Ben’s bride to be is seeing her old boyfriend Steve (David Strickland, the guy from Suddenly Susan who killed himself). We also learn why Sarah is heading to Savannah (to sell her bagel shop and get divorced from her bad husband so she can give the money to her kid from a previous marriage, so hopefully she can get back into his life). As the movie winds down we begin to wonder if the two will make it to Savannah in time for Ben’s wedding, will Ben still get married, and will he ever finish writing his wedding vows? Along the way there are a lot of laughs though.

This Bronwen Hughes (Harriet the Spy) directed film also has appearances by Steve Zahn (You've Got Mail), Ronny Cox, Richard Schiff, Blythe Danner, Michael Fairman, Janet Carroll, Meredith Scott Lynn, Steve Hytner, Anne Haney, Bert Remsen, Julie Ivey, and Maia Lien.

Forces of Nature is funny, which is a necessity for a comedy. There are also some touching moments. Affleck and Bullock work well on the screen together. But the film seemed to lack some originality, that in the end forces me to give it only five couches, so you might be better off renting it.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:45:47 AM

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