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You meet someone in an airport bar, you
share a few stories maybe a drink or two and a few laughs. Then
you discover that you can do this person a favor while at the
same time it benefits you, what is the harm? Generally no harm no
foul but in this case the plane you should have been on crashes
and everyone on board dies and you gave your ticket to the man in
the airport bar. You gave up your ticket, so you could have a
night of sex with a woman you met in the same bar. This theme
alone could be the plot for a whole different movie. You know a
movie on how this person deals with his close brush with death,
how his actions effected a whole family or maybe it was fate,
maybe he wasn't really meant to be on this plane. There were many
angles to this scenario but writer/director Don Roos gives it a
different spin in Bounce starring Ben Affleck (Boiler
Room) as Buddy Amaral the
man that gave up his first class seat on that fated flight.
The angle on this film is not so much how Affleck deals with his
guilt but what he does afterwards. Affleck is an alcoholic who is
a partial owner in an ad agency, ironically this ad agency just
scored a large contract with the airline that just went down. His
company now has to step up and handle damage control or spin on
this tragedy. What doesn't mesh in the writing is how fast
Affleck's character hits bottom with his booze problem. He was a
successful and competent person then all of a sudden he is a
complete mess and hits bottom very fast and recovers even
remarkably faster. Even better he recovers without the aid of a
program. Oh he goes into a fancy rehab clinic, but is not required
to work a program, so basically he dries out and goes back to
work. Then in a moment of weakness, right after he returns to the
office (go figure he is already in trouble) an office lackey
tells him to work a program and he goes home and reads a book on
the 12 steps. One of the steps is to fix or repair the damage you
did. So what does this guy do, he tracks down the wife of the guy
he gave his seat on the plane to. What are his intentions? Well I
guess the writer wasn't even sure since what ended up happening
was Affleck started dating the widow and fell in love.
Now this is where I guess you could say the story begins, and since it
co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow (The Talented Mr.
Ripley) this would be a safe assumption. Hard to
believe all this happened and now the real action between the
stars begins. Paltrow is Abby the widow with two children. She is
trying to make in as a real estate agent and is not very good at
it. She is not experience and does not have confidence in herself.
This is supposed to be ironic because her late husband held
disdain for people in sales or Affleck's type of work. Her late
husband was a writer. What the audience is privy to it the
beginnings of a relationship between this fictional couple by
first class actors that were also once a romantic couple. It was
almost supposed to be like viewing Paltrow's and Affleck's own
romance. I don't think so. I didn't buy them as a couple and I
sure didn't buy any resemblance to their own relationship. Yes
there was chemistry but the whole concept was just not plausible.
Everything moved so fast. The story was forced and wrapped up
nice and neat. The tension only lasted briefly and the
transformation of the general characters just not what good
writing is all about. Yes I am slamming the writing, not the
acting. Affleck and Paltrow are great actors and immerse
themselves fully into the characters they play but if the
character is not developed and changes rapidly just how well can
you act that out.
I didn't get any nudity from Affleck and Paltrow doesn't do nude
scenes not like I would ever care to see her nude but boy would I
love a nude pic of Affleck. The woman at the airport that Affleck's
character spent that fated night with was Natasha Henstridge (The
Whole Nine Yards) but
sorry guys no nudity for you either. She does however turn up
later in the film as well as Jennifer Grey's bit role in the
beginning. So I give the About-Movies ratings of five couches and
warn guys it is a chick flick all the way. So a good date movie
if you want to come across as sensitive and caring.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:34 AM
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