In the final third of Bounce, Gwyneth Paltrow utters a line that could easily be worked into a bad review - "Bouncing, it's like crashing over and over again." However, in this reviewer's opinion, Bounce is a tender and funny motion picture with a stellar cast. Darn.
Starring the "Are they or aren't they?" couple of the moment, Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, Bounce is both a romance and a comedy, but most definitely not a romantic comedy. Instead, writer-director Don Roos presents an exceedingly moving drama with some magically comedic moments.
The scene is set at the airport during the film's opening. Three strangers share a drink at a bar. Over conversation, two discover that they are both headed to Los Angeles. When one man's flight is cancelled, the other offers him his ticket. The man accepts, boards the plane, and then dies when it crashes shortly thereafter. The other man has sex with a stranger in an airport hotel. Fate is fickle, isn't it? Then again, the lucky guy is Ben Affleck, so maybe fate has little to do with it.
But Affleck's character, advertising executive Buddy Amaral, is not lucky for long. Soon after his brush with death, he lapses into alcoholism. After an embarrassing moment at an advertising awards ceremony where, ironically enough, he wins an award for the post-crash advertising campaign he did for the airline, he checks himself into rehab and comes out a changed man. He then decides that he wants to seek out the dead man's widow to make certain that she is all right.
We first see the aforementioned widow, Abby Janello (Gwyneth Paltrow), just moments after her husband dies. It is not until the next day that her worst fears are confirmed when her husband's driver's license is found on one of the bodies on board.
One year later, when Buddy is dry and Abby is working as a real estate agent, they finally meet under the pretense of a business transaction. From there, they slowly fall for each other - first her, then him - and eventually get together. The problem is that he never tells her that her husband's last moments on earth were spent in his company. Not to mention that her husband is dead because he took Buddy's seat on the doomed airplane.
Ben and Gwyneth make as good an on-screen duo as they did off. They have an incredible chemistry, but not one that begs the question "Are they still together?" What they share in Bounce is more a chemistry of personality than one of sexuality. Their on-screen rapport is definitely a bonus for Affleck since his acting here is more engaging than ever. The director plays off of Affleck's good looks by throwing him into boxer briefs, the shower, and even a wet, white T-shirt for no good reason. Still, from the very beginning, Affleck rises above his beefcake status to play a multifaceted, subtle Buddy Amaral.
Gwyneth is not shown off physically nearly as much as Ben. In fact, never has Gwyneth been frumpier than in her opening scene. Awakened by her mother's frantic phone call, Gwyneth's first appearance is in a dowdy nightgown with curly, brown hair. After that, Paltrow's performance fills the screen and demands attention. She crafts the character of a sweet, simple woman with fierce pride and perseverance. This could easily be the best performance of Gwyneth's career, indubitably one of the best of the year. Early in the movie, when people from the airline arrive at Abby's door to tell her that her husband may have been on board, Paltrow manages to create a moment so heartbreaking that even on its own would make her performance astounding.
Besides Ben and Gwyneth, a capable supporting cast, including Tony Goldwyn and Natasha Henstridge, rounds out the cast. Still, the only other cast member to truly shine as much as the leads is Johnny Galecki, best known for his role on the television series Roseanne. Playing Seth, Buddy's wisecracking office assistant, he steals many scenes from Affleck, and gives the film some of its funniest moments.
Writer-director Don Roos brought together a wonderful cast with his own outstanding script. Bounce is his second foray in writing and directing. His first was 1998's The Opposite Of Sex. Initially, Bounce might seem like a departure for Roos, but it maintains his first movie's wry humor and emotional strength while being a quieter, more polished film overall.
Bounce comes off as the typical romantic comedy in its trailers, but it is a profound, affecting movie. At times very funny and at time very tragic, Bounce rides the considerable talent of its cast and writer-director rather than their admittedly flashy names.
