The Rebound (2009)

1.0

DRAMA

U.S. Release Date: TBA

Running Length: 95 Minutes

MPAA Classification: R (Language, Sexual Content, Brief Drug Use)

Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Bartha, Art Garfunkel, Joanna Gleason

Director: Bart Freundlich

Screenplay: Bart Freundlich

Cinematography: Jonathan Freeman

Music: Clint Mansell

U.S. Distributor: The Weinstein Company

Review by: Carter Moulton

06/22/10

The Rebound, written and directed by Bart Freundlich, is a stale attempt at entertainment, a film that follows an old formula well-known to moviegoers everywhere. There is nothing here you haven’t seen before. Even the opening title sequence, with its stick figures set against solid-color backgrounds, is a complete rehash of the title sequence in Catch Me If You Can.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is satisfactory as Sandy, a 40-year-old woman with two children who lives a quiet and comfortable married life. While perusing through videos of her sons birthday party, Sandy finds footage her husband receiving oral sex. I wonder who took the video, as it’s stationary and the act is partially blocked by the kitchen wall—not to mention the video is just sitting on the family’s home computer. Little did I know, there were plenty more unanswered questions and contrived coincidences heading the viewer’s way. Naturally for Sandy, it’s divorce and self-discovery time.

She moves to New York, taking her children along for the ride. She meets Aram, played by Justin Bartha (The Hangover), a twenty-something who has graduated college but still works at a coffee shop. The rest is history. He baby-sits for her; she begins to like him; they fall in love. The age gap becomes the formulaic conflict—what will other people say? This isn’t right—but it’s such an uninspired plot device.

Photo © The Weinstein Company

The script is downright awful, save a couple of witty jokes told by supporting characters. Aram has the conventional best friend who thrusts his pelvis around, making sex jokes like there’s no tomorrow; Sandy has the standard best friend who pushes her to get laid as soon as possible. There is no originality anywhere, and much of the dialogue falls flat on its face. For instance, a scene shows Aram and Sandy dancing at a downtown club. Aram leaves to grab Sandy, who continues dancing, a drink. When he returns, she says, “Ah, I’m so hot.” He responds: “Tell me about it.”

A ten-minute montage—or so it seems—attempts to cover a six-year span toward the end of the film, but it’s sloppily thrown together, with repetition drowning out the slowly climaxing rock music. In the end we see the two run into each other at a restaurant, and there’s nothing we can do. They were meant to be together. By the end, characters, most notably Aram’s parents (played by Art Garfunkel and Joanna Gleason), have dramatically changed their opinions without any explanation.

Catherine Zeta-Jones’ body is flung up on the screen to be seen. Laura Mulvey’s argument regarding the male gaze of cinema is evident here in the clearest sense. Zeta-Jones takes off her shirt after coming home from a failed date, revealing a nicely-patterned bra. She thinks nothing of it, but we, along with Aram, are meant to think, “Yowza, she’s still got it.” I found the handling of these shots rather distressing.

The high point of The Rebound is when Garfunkel tells Sandy’s children about his anal surgery. The nostalgia of my Simon & Garfunkel vinyls combined with his line: “I’m going to get a new asshole,” launched me through the roof. There’s really nothing else going on here.