Bounce with me

Paltrow, Affleck fall flat in sappy chick flick

By Leslie Boxer

Daily Arts Writer

A hopeless romantic at heart, I eagerly anticipated the latest celluloid date movie, "Bounce." Visions of Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck falling in love danced around in my little head to the tune of "The Nutcracker Suite." Perhaps I was hoping for too much. The film was a romance but not a true love story. The emotional twists and turns associated with the plot replace the romantic movie that I had envisioned.

"Bounce" starts with the introduction of Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck), a hot shot Los Angeles advertising executive, on his way home after closing a big deal with Infinity Airlines. His flight is delayed at O'Hare where he meets a hot Dallas blonde (Natasha Henstridge) and a struggling playwright/family man, Greg Jenello (Tony Goldwyn). Buddy gives Greg his airline ticket in exchange for a panty-raid with the blonde only to find out exactly how fate works; the plane Buddy was scheduled to be on crashes. Unable to release himself from his guilt, Buddy does a little crashing of his own. Upon returning to L.A., over the next much fast-forwarded year, Buddy turns into an alcoholic. The story resumes after Buddy returns from rehab and, as a part of the infamous AA twelve step program, tries to relieve his sense of responsibility for Greg's death by visiting Abby Jenello (Gwyneth Paltrow), Greg's widow.

Buddy finds Abby, an amateur real-estate agent, and maneuvers his way into her life. After spending a little time with Abby, never telling her the secret connection they share, Buddy falls in love. This part of the story is a bit underdeveloped: They go on one date and suddenly he wants Abby to be "his last call of the day." While the chemistry is most certainly believable, the timing is hard to stomach. The reason this lack of development slips by is because the off-screen relationship between Ben and Gwyneth easily translates to the big screen, allowing the audience to accept the leap from strangers to lovers.

The pairing of the two on-again-off-again lovers as an onscreen duo, while an excellent idea in theory, complicates matters. Even though both actors give good performances, it is hard to escape that they are not playing Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck. It is particularly difficult to see Gwyneth Paltrow as an ordinary mother of two. Despite demonstrating the understated intensity and depth of emotion that Abby deserves, Paltrow somehow cannot shed her star persona. The dyed brown hair and frumpy clothes, while in certain respects make her more believable as a widow with kids, seems ill-fitted on Paltrow. Regardless, their chemistry works on screen and perhaps that is all that is needed.

Chemistry or no chemistry, the film drags. The problem here is with the timing of the anticipated confrontation of who Buddy is and why he sought to meet Abby. Unfortunately director Don Roos ("The Opposite of Sex") tries to play with the audience a bit too much - we see many a scene in which Affleck wants to deliver the speech yet just cannot. Yet this anticipation works against the film and its pace is off.

The film, which has a lot of intelligent dialogue, tries to give the audience an emotional bounce: We are happy, we are sad, we want them to get together but we don't know if it'll work out in the end. All of this is pulled off because of the acting of both Affleck and Paltrow; both deliver and show depth of character. The film is good - it is a date movie without the tingly romantic feelings that often make guys regret letting the girl pick the movie.