Bounce
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DVD details
Actor: Ben Affleck, Edward Edwards, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Grey, Natasha HenstridgeBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-04-10
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Miramax
DVD Reviews of Bounce
DVD Review: Earnest and dreary
Summary: 2 Stars
On a very basic level, this movie is just...wrong. "Bounce" has interesting characters and ideas floating around in it, but this is one of those movies whose plot would be over with in about fifteen minutes if the characters just behaved with some common sense and reacted appropriately to the given situations. Instead we get a script by Don Roos which tries to manufacture drama where there is none. The setup for the relationship between Ben Affleck's Buddy and Gwyneth Paltrow's Abby is somewhat involved, but intriguing: Buddy gives his plane ticket to a stranger named Greg, so Greg can get home a little earlier to his family for Christmas and Buddy can stay in Chicago with his lovely new acquaintance Mimi and her overnight room voucher. The next morning Buddy is horrified to learn that the plane crashed and Greg, who was in Buddy's intended seat, was killed. Buddy's survivor guilt makes sense, but his subsequent alcoholism and rehab are never given the weight they should have been given in the story - when was the last time you saw a movie character's descent into alcoholism depicted by a few shots of that character holding a glass? And in a completely ludicrous plot development, the script also has the airline company employing Buddy's ad firm to design a series of spots which actually CALL ATTENTION to the crash. Reality check, please!!!
When he decides to visit Greg's widow (Abby) a year later, to make amends as part of his 12 step program, Buddy doesn't tell her who he is, and this for me doesn't wash: there is no reason for him not to tell her, and the characters could still have entered into a romance from a different (and more interesting) perspective. But instead they're playing "I've Got A Secret". Abby later overreacts melodramatically when she learns about Buddy's connection to Greg's death, because he LIED to her. Of course she lied too - she first tells Buddy she's divorced, and when she later owns up to being a widow, the reason she gives for lying is pretty lame. The keeping-secrets aspect of the plot is illogical - these people are looking for closure of some sort, after all - and it makes the movie seem very formulaic and contrived. There was a good story to be had with these characters, but sadly Don Roos never found it. If he had spent more time showing us the intervening year after the crash, from both characters' POV's, and then let Buddy and Abby cut to the emotional chase when they finally do meet, the movie would have had more of an interesting and substantial arc - instead it's obviously been designed primarily to keep Affleck and Paltrow onscreen together as much as possible.
A little relief from them would have been a nice thing. This is born out by the DVD edition's disc two, which contains deleted scenes fleshing out some of the supporting characters and clarifying some of the plot - it also includes two alternate endings, both of which are better than the one finally chosen for the theatrical release. I'm not sure whether Roos or Miramax made the cutting room decisions, but the deleted scenes contain much better dialogue than a lot of the scenes that did make it into the final cut. This is partially because almost all the scenes involve Affleck or Paltrow talking with supporting characters, rather than to each other - the movie really suffers by the exclusion of these scenes, and it was almost a mistake for Miramax to include them on the disk, since they left this viewer thinking "there was a much better movie here and they blew it!" The supporting characters are played by great actors who are edited down or essentially wasted. Joe Morton, Jennifer Grey (whose character really deserved more screen time), Natasha Henstridge, Caroline Aaron, and David Paymer all do well with the bones they're thrown. Tony Goldwyn does make a very likeable impression as Greg, and Johnny Galecki is a real standout as Buddy's assistant Seth, who is also a member of AA: the deleted scenes involving this character reinforce how exceptionally good Galecki is in the role, but they also confirm that Roos had no idea how to use him in the film. The subject of AA is brought up several times: It would have been cool to see Buddy confronting some of his demons at a meeting, but although this carrot is waved at the audience, we never do get it -- the whole AA angle is just another plot device, as is the airline lawsuit trial, which could really have provided a jolt of dramatic interest if it had been handled better.
As for the stars' performances: well I've never been a Ben Affleck fan, but he actually gives this a valiant effort and has some good moments - if he's not totally convincing in his more emotional scenes, it's at least partially due to the weak writing. Paltrow is excellent, fighting the easy cliche of her role and bringing lots of original shadings to it. She's also much better than Affleck at transcending the clunky dialogue - both of their characters are given stuff to say that I can't imagine anyone in this situation in real life actually saying.
Roos does contribute some nice directorial touches: the plane crash, for instance, is handled in a refreshingly minimalist way, as is the bedroom scene between the leads - it really plays as a love scene for the characters, rather than as a voyeuristic opportunity for the audience. On the technical side, the movie is beautifully shot, as was Roos' previous "The Opposite Of Sex" - I'm not sure if it's the same cinematographer, but whatever else you say about the movie, "Bounce" looks great. The melancholy sound track is unoriginal and bland, with the occasional dreary alternative-folk-rock song thrown in for good measure. Dreary is a good word to describe this flick - it's very earnest, and very dreary. It's hard to categorize it in one or two words (which is not necessarily a bad thing) - "Bounce" is certainly not a romantic comedy, but calling it a drama only belies how basically UN-dramatic it is. I know a lot of people really like this movie, but if you haven't seen it, rent it first to make sure you're one of them, before you buy it.
Description of Bounce
Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck), a cocky, self-absorbed ad executive who--in desiring a tryst with the gorgeous Mimi (Natasha Henstridge), a woman he meets at the airport--gives up his plane ticket back to Los Angeles to writer Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn). The plane crashes, and Buddy begins a downward spiral of alcoholism and self-loathing until he undergoes rehab. Once out, he decides to pay a visit to the dead man's widow. Abby Janello (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a struggling real estate agent with two young sons. She slowly befriends Buddy and falls in love with him while Buddy struggles with the guilty secret of his connection to her husband's untimely death which could destroy their relationship.Bounce has all the deft charm and breezy good looks you'd expect from a romance starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, but under the surface beats the poisoned heart of an independent film just going through the motions. Affleck plays Buddy Amaral, a successful ad exec with an empty life. In a Chicago airport, he meets Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn), a failed playwright going home to his family and a corrupt job as a TV writer. Buddy, angling for a one-night stand with a fellow passenger, gives Greg his ticket, but feels bad when he discovers the plane crashed and the guy died. He feels so bad, in fact, that when he gets out of rehab a year or so later, he decides to give the guy's widow, real estate agent Abby (Paltrow), commission on the sale of a building for his business, a sale she's not qualified to make. They start dating. She quickly forgets her initial impression of him as a creepy stalker. Near the end of the movie, she finds out her first impression was correct and she dumps him. It's the right decision but one that the movie won't allow her to make. Instead her best friend and her kids convince her to stay with the guy. Eeeesh. Affleck is good at playing privileged and shallow, Paltrow does what she can with the prepackaged grief of a widow, Joe Morton has very little to do as Buddy's business partner (but he does it well), and Johnny Galecki shines in a very small part as Buddy's assistant. Good performances in a rather creepy film by the guy who made The Opposite of Sex. --Andy Spletzer
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