Catherine Zeta-Jones has fallen off the major movie motion picture radar in recent years, especially after her Oscar-winning role as Velma Kelly in Rob Marshall’s Chicago. The lackluster chef rom-com No Reservations didn’t help any either. Although the Welsh actress earned herself a Tony award recently for her Broadway debut in A Little Night Musical, she hasn’t had much to offer on the big screen- and the DVD for The Rebound supports this argument.
The Bart Freundlich-written / directed film was made back in 2009, but was released last year, probably because nobody wanted to see it. The Rebound also stars Justin Bartha (The Hangover), musician Art Garfunkel, and a slew of familiar and unknown faces in an awkward romantic comedy that was probably first offered to Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, or Kate Hudson, but was subsequently turned down. While we see that Zeta-Jones shines just a little when it comes to the funny one-liners, the cliched story is too overwhelming, predictable, and stale. After a while, this movie was so bad, it was actually really funny.
As a newly single mom looking to find her way in the big city, Zeta-Jones’ character, Kate, meets college grad / coffee-house barista, Arem, played by Bartha. The two start off as friends in that clumsy I’m-gonna-hire-you-as-my-nanny-even-though-you-didnt-offer kind of way, and then the cougar theme slowly, but surely emerges. Bartha is not an adequate leading man. The only thing that could’ve saved this movie was casting someone more prominent like Ryan Gosling or even Gossip Girl‘s Chace Crawford in the role, but there’s a reason why they wouldn’t have done the movie to begin with. Bartha definitely has what it takes to carry the comedy of his part, but barely does so when Kate’s annoying and forgettable kids start flapping at the gums with inappropriate curses and references to body parts.
The only saving grace in Kate and Arem’s relationship is perhaps the very real-life dialogue that exists between the two as they’re falling for each other, and most definitely when they’re met with a climactic conflict. This only goes to the credit of Freundlich, director of Friends with Money and Trust The Man.
If you hadn’t heard of The Rebound, you haven’t missed out, so you probably shouldn’t bother anyway. Zeta-Jones can do a lot better.
Rating: 3/10
PS the disc’s special features include Cast and crew interviews and that’s it.
The Rebound will be avialable on Blu-ray and DVD on February 7th from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
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