The Rebound [DVD Review]

It's very rare that within 20 minutes of a film I want to turn it off. The Rebound created one of those moments in which I felt my life would not gain any satisfaction from watching the story. However, I was wrong. I did get some sort of appeal picking out everything that's bad with the story and finding ways to make it better. The boring tale, the unappealing cast and the lack of structure to the narrative made this not only uninteresting but difficult to sit through.  

I'll go in easy with the negatives to start off with. Catherine Zeta-Jones provides the 21st Century Mum, heartbroken and hard working. Justin Bartha (the only factor that makes this film even slightly worth watching) plays the puppy dog life loving ex-student. Together they clash, which isn't exactly what you want from a rom-com. I think I have more chemistry with a straw than they do together. Separately the characters work better and their lives become more interesting. But don't take those words too literally. "More interesting" means the bore of their non-existent love life makes anything else worth watching. 

This is a very generic genre, and with the repetition of the same story told over and over, there have been some interesting variations of the outcome from events and the character profile to breakaway from the cliché. Sadly, this is as predictable as it can get, and everything you would expect the characters to be so they are perfect to the opposite sex, they are. Catherine Zeta-Jones is interested in sport, yet a little bit feminist. Justin Bartha is sensitive and caring, yet still a bit of a lad. It's a universal audience appealer, but actually the rating is 15. Why? Because there's lots of swearing. I thought there was at least going to be a decent sex scene, but other than seeing the cheating husband gain some mouth action, there's nothing. 

What makes this film even worse is the fact it's badly, very badly structured. The events that occur don't flow well in order to build up their relationship, which therefore creates an awkward tension when it comes to understanding who and what they are. Yes we get a sense of their background, but together they just do not work. The end montage with the resulting meet almost made me want to be sick from predictability. The story didn't seem rushed, but it just came across as a mix-match of events that somehow resulted in them being together. 

Bart Freundlich directed and wrote this film. With his input on both the major factors of the movie meant the resulting product was disappointing. He's relatively new to the scene of film making, so lets just hope this is a giant learning curve. 

1 Star


This redeems herself: