A romantic comedy squarely aimed at what Hollywood likes to call the 'older female quartile', The Rebound may indeed attract an older female audience in its first few days of release. But they are highly unlikely to recommend it to anyone as it is, without question, one of the comedy duds of the year.
The set-up is not bad: Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a comfy mum in the suburbs with a penchant for sports facts, who inadvertently discovers that her husband is having an affair with the babysitter. She leaves on the spot, taking her two kids to the city, where she scores herself a job in TV sports production and finds the kind of bijou apartment that presumably passes for slumming it in Hollywood parlance. All she needs for a completely new life is a man, and a May to December releationship begins with a much younger local coffee shop worker (Justin Bartha).
If the plot has promise, the execution is woefully lacking. Writer/director Bart Freundlich lacks any sense of sophistication or even basic screenwriting credibility. Attempting to notch up the humour he inserts a number of scenes that would not make one of the American Pie DVD releases. For example, Zeta Jones' character is at one point persuaded to go on a date with a rich city type, whose disgusting manners are meant to provoke mirth. Instead the scene is simply unbelievable and embarrassing.
It's not the only embarrassing moment: a fight scene in which ZJ's character is meant to let out her inner rage is another dud, and the climax is both mawkish and downright weird . With such a poor script to work with, Zeta Jones and Bartha are left floundering: there is no chemistry between them, and at times the dramatic scenes play out like freshers' week at drama class. The two actors look as though they are wondering if this is really what they signed up for: but, unlike audiences who are forced to pay out for this, at least they are getting paid.
Paul Hurley
