Bounce

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

Theatrical International release dates:
Europe: Jan 19, 01
Japan: Mar 3, 01
Australia: Mar 8, 01

Movie Details

Cast: Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natasha Henstridge, Edward Woodward, Jennifer Grey, Tony Goldwyn, Lisa Carpenter-Prewitt, Lisa Joyner, Richard Saxton, Caroline Aaron
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 106 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 1.85:1

International rating:

Europe: 12
Australia: M

DVD International release dates:
North America: Apr 10, 01
Europe: Nov 5, 01

VHS International release dates:
North America: Sep 11, 01
Europe: Oct 4, 04