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Cast
Buddy (Ben Affleck)
Abby (Gwyneth Paltrow)
Mimi (Natasha Henstridge)
Greg (Tony Goldwyn)
Buddy’s Secretary (Johnny Galecki)
Written
and Directed by Don Roos
Rated PG-13 for some language and sensuality
Running Time: 102 minutes Distributed by Miramax
Buy this poster!
Bounce
is an enjoyable character-driven romantic tale. The film opens
with Buddy Amaral (Affleck), an advertiser that is also an
alcoholic awaiting a plane that is delayed at O’Hare airport.
In the airport bar, Buddy meets Greg (Goldwyn), a failed playwright,
and Mimi, a beautiful businesswoman, whose planes are also
delayed. Buddy is surprisingly placed on a flight to Los Angeles,
however, he rather spend the night with Mimi than on a long
flight back home. Knowing that Greg needs to get back to his
wife and kids in Los Angeles, Buddy gives Greg his ticket
and tells him he will catch a later flight. A few hours later,
Buddy finds out the plane that he was supposed to be on that
Greg boarded crashed and everyone on board was killed. Across
the country in the Los Angeles, Greg’s sweet wife, Abby (Paltrow),
and his children receive the news of Greg’s death. One year
later, Buddy decides to look up Abby in Los Angeles. Unknowing
of Buddy’s earlier encounters with her late husband, Abby
begins seeing the young advertiser. However, as the relationship
grows more and more, Buddy searches for a solution to his
decision to continue seeing Abby and how to tell her the truth
about Greg.
Bounce
is one of the better romantic films to come out in years.
The reason is because its characters are real-life people
that aren’t cradled into a mush of melodrama.
The
film was written and directed by Don Roos. His only previous
screen credit is the dark comedy The Opposite of Sex. Roos
creates deep characters to enhance his script with. Abby and
Buddy are common people with common problems, which is why
I could relate more closely with them instead of couples in
films like Autumn in New York. Roos also doesn’t take long
to develop the characters, even the character of Greg, who
is on the screen for less than 10 minutes and serves mostly
as an antagonist of the film. Roos just delivers a romantic
drama that works and is believable. His direction is steady
and bold as well. One example is that his love scenes in the
film don’t drag on forever like in most romances.
Gwyneth
Paltrow and Ben Affleck are wonderfully benevolent as Abby
and Buddy. The two create a firm connection of feeling off
each other’s acting choices in the film. I will admit that
I was hesitant about these two actors together because of
their real-life relationship. However, I take what I have
said about them back and admit that their relationship helped
create their effective on screen chemistry. Johnny Galecki
also turns in an admirable performance as Buddy’s secretary
who use to be an alcoholic.
I
liked Bounce a lot. I thought the storyline was workable,
but most of all the characters were real, as were the actors.
Don Roos is a good storyteller and I hope he works on many
more projects in the future.
Report
Card Grade: B+
Beastman’s
Movie Reviews
Copyright, 2000 Joseph C. Tucker
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