Forces of Nature

Forces of Nature

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DVD Reviews of Forces of Nature

DVD Review: Waste of talent and potential material.
Summary: 2 Stars

The husband in question is Ben Holmes, who hates bachelor parties and can't wait to get hitched with his soulmate sweetheart. Of course, they both live in New York, and since the story needs a great deal of distance to separate our two love birds for a long period of time, the wedding is going to take place in Savannah, where her parents are planning a very festive celebration. Ben's parents want to marry him off for some reason not discussed in the plot. She flies down before him (why not together?), and he soon boards his own plane which has an accident on the runway, leaving him and his seating partner Sarah stranded. Sarah is a bit wild and evasive, without a care in the world it seems, though her admissions will later prove otherwise. Thus begins the wild race down to Savannah, involving natural and human disasters which stand in his way, not to mention his undeniable attraction to the illustrious Sarah.

The story seems like it has a lot going for it. So why does it fail in so many places during the movie? Well, there's a lot of things wrong with it: the contrivance of the plot, the bad execution of most of the key scenes, the let-down ending, and most of all, the character of Ben.

Throughout the entire movie, our two little nomads run into one problem after another, from things like stalled planes to switched train cars, from stormy weather to geriatrics on a travel bus who believe the lie about Ben being a doctor, Ben and Sarah run into just about anything you can possibly think of. While this may sound amusing, it gets to the point where you keep wishing he'd do one of two things: call his parents and get their credit card number to purchase a ticket to Savannah, or screw Sarah like he knows he wants to, call his fiancee and break the wedding off, and run away into the sunset and never be seen again.

The way some of the scenes in this film were carried out, as well as their content, are too contrived and unbelievable to make the movie work. one of these scenes that especially stands out is the trip they take to K-Mart to get out of a rainstorm. Here, they are seen romping through the store, using walkie-talkies to communicate while shopping, sitting in beach lounge chairs having drinks and talking like they own the chain of stores. I'm not sure how they usually operate things at K-Mart, but in my town, they'd be kicked out by management. The ending is the biggest contrivance, and since I cannot give it away, let's just say that there's no way you can have a wedding like that.

The characters of the film turn out to be a major disappointment, especially when they are given the opportunity to shine. Ben, portrayed by Ben Affleck, is portrayed as nothing more than a mushy, whining idiot who you wish would trip and break his face at least ten times throughout the movie. While his inner struggle is supposed to provide a dramatic factor for the movie, it does nothing more than make him and the story more annoying and unbearable. Sandra Bullock, while charming and radiant, proves that her character is a big fat waste of talent. Her free-spiritedness and wit grow even more tired than Affleck's whining, though she does have her monents of hilarity. The saddest waste of actress is Maura Tierney, who plays Ben's fiancee. During her stay in Savannah, awaiting the arrival of Ben, all she can do is pout about his inability to reach her sooner, get drunk with friends, be seduced without success by an old high school male friend, and listen to her parents gripe and complain about her fiancee's tardiness.

One an even worse note, I must comment on the decision to try and have a parental storyline going on in the midst of everything else (as if there weren't enough to keep up with already). Tierney's parents turn out to be separated, while Affleck's are happily married. They keep popping up just when you think they've been obliterated by the scriptwriter who was deciding to give us a blessing.

My summation: too much plot going on, hardly a shred of believability, even if you suspend disbelief, and less-than-amusing characters, all combined into one large mess that makes "Forces of Nature" a very confused and sloppy attempt at a romantic comedy. To thou who wouldst see this movie, I charge thee beware endless subplots and annoyances that make your own life's discord seem like posies in a breezy field.

Description of Forces of Nature

After a wayward bird flies into the engine of his airplane, Ben is forced to find another way to his wedding. He finds himself stuck with Sarah, whom he carried from the plane after she was whacked in the noggin by his laptop. The heat between them is unmistakable, and the drama in the film comes from the "will he or won't he," both in terms of sleeping with Sarah and meeting up with his bride. Forces of Nature is a fun and sentimental road-trip film, but Ben is such a strait-laced noodge, you can't help but want him to fall flat on his face just a little. Bullock is the life of this film, although her free-spirited ways get a bit tired (responsibility is not all bad). The highlight of this movie, though, is definitely the cinematography. The beautiful rain shots and the colors of the scenes lend to the unsettling mood. While the jokes are not rip-roaring, Forces is to be reckoned with for those times when a lighthearted film is what you need. --Jenny Brown