|
How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 21 January 2011
This a movie review of THE REBOUND. |
“All of us, as women, have developed a reservoir of resentment and anger, and these reservoirs, put together, form an ocean, and this ocean is available for all of us to draw from. It holds the collective power of every woman who has ever been wronged. An inappropriate sexual remark, being underpaid for a job you've done better than a man, an ancestor who was a slave, or rice picker, or simply low man on the totem pole, a husband who has wronged you, who has cheated and lied to you, or you, or you, or you,” Sensei Dana (Alice Playten)
I remember seeing this at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010, and being torn in anticipation – it looked tripe, but it’s showing at the EIFF! I was very pleasantly surprised. Not to bore you, I was in a very soppy mood, so perhaps I was susceptible to its charms? Ok, after a second viewing, let’s see how it holds up...
I remember seeing this at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010, and being torn in anticipation – it looked tripe, but it’s showing at the EIFF! I was very pleasantly surprised. Not to bore you, I was in a very soppy mood, so perhaps I was susceptible to its charms? Ok, after a second viewing, let’s see how it holds up...
|
|
|
|
|
Every so often a piece hits the news about the trend in older women dating younger men, say some local news story for instance taking about a dating site devoted to these demographics mutual attraction. Also, recent cinematic and television output includes I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN (Michelle Pfeiffer), PRIME (Uma Thurman), COUGAR TOWN (Courtney Cox) and CHERIE (Michelle Pfeiffer). You may be thinking, “Whoah, that is a trend!” But hold it my reader amigos, two of the most influential movies of Hollywood’s counter-culture birth cover these same topics: THE GRADUATE (1967) and HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971). These latter two have cemented themselves into pop culture. It would be unfair to compare THE REBOUND to that. It is a rom-com, a word sullied by the sheer volume of junk that falls within that genre’s purview, but it is superior to most of the mainstream’s modern offerings.
|
|
This is about two rebounds. Two people who had their partners cheat on them. Even before the credits have finished we witness Catherine Zeta Jones’ Sandy witness her husband get blown by some douche. She is 40-something with two kids, and has them move to New York City for a fresh start. Twenty-four year old Aram (THE HANGOVER’s Justin Bartha) has discovered his French wife was just using him to get a Green Card, while simultaneously having an affair with her “brother”. Sandy and Aram meet, they’re opposites, they have their best mates comment smugly on them, blah-blah-blah; but what elevates this above the noise of cliché is that the dialogue is engaging, the actors are winning, and the ending is immensely satisfying.
I could go on to say how THE REBOUND doesn’t talk down to women (or men). Contrast the WTF mess that is BRIDE WARS. I could also say it is both romantic and funny, thus living up to its genre. On paper this shouldn’t have worked, but against the odds, it somehow does.
|
|
