Film of the week: The Rebound (15)
Damon Smith • Published 3 Aug 2010 12:00
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Tough love: Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sandy and Kate Jennings Grant as Daphne. PA Photo/Momentum Pictures.
Rating: 5/10
THE Rebound has been sitting on a shelf for more than a year and, in truth, that's where it should have stayed.
Bearing striking similarities to the Uma Thurman film Prime, Bart Freundlich's predictable romantic comedy asks whether love can truly bridge the age divide or if the prejudices of friends and family will ultimately undermine the foundations of a relationship between a woman and a younger man.
If the writer-director has any interesting observations about modern-day romance, he fails to weave them into a pedestrian script that gives all of the half decent lines to the supporting characters.
These include two cherubic offspring, who are wise beyond their tender years and seem far more centred than their mother. "We thought that you were dead," says the boy, startled when his parent wakes from her alcohol-induced stupor.
"We thought you had asphyxiated on your vomit," adds the girl sassily.
The perfectly pickled parent is Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a 40-year-old yummy mummy whose world implodes when she discovers footage of her husband Frank (Sam Robards) engaged in a sexual act with a neighbour.
Sandy flings down her apron and muffin tins, abandons the suburbs and heads back to the bustle of New York City with her daughter Sadie (Kelly Gould) and son Frank Jr (Andrew Cherry) in tow.
The mother lands a job at a TV sports network and needs to hurriedly arrange childcare. So she approaches 25-year-old college graduate Aram Finkelstein (Justin Bartha), who works in the coffee shop below her apartment.
Aram jumps at the opportunity to earn more money and gain more independence from his controlling Jewish mother, Roberta (Joanna Gleason), and long-suffering father, Harry (Art Garfunkel).
Friendship turns to attraction and eventually Sandy and Aram acknowledge their feelings and kindle a romance that raises eyebrows among her circle of friends, especially acid-tongued Daphne (Jennings Grant).
Aram successfully allays fears by poking fun at the age difference but Sandy continues to fixate on those 15 years.
The Rebound has some amusing exchanges and Zeta-Jones and Bartha are an attractive central pairing but there's simply no screen chemistry between the pair.
It's little wonder everyone counsels Sandy against the affair. Convention blights every twist in the narrative and the set pieces feel hopelessly contrived like when Sandy attends self-defence classes and lets out her pent-up rage at her husband in one foul-mouthed primal scream.
Or a blind date that culminates in the would-be suitor relieving himself in a portable loo in the middle of the street then wrapping his unwashed hands around Sandy's stunned face.
Thankfully, reality bites for a downbeat ending but Freundlich simply can't resist a saccharine coda because a woman like Sandy apparently needs a man at her side.
This article appeared in Villager 29 Jul 10
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