Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck
Brilliant acting requires the ability to express conflicting emotions without revealing the gear-shifting within. At the tender age of 28, Paltrow makes it look easy. In scene after scene in Bounce, a slight but savvy romantic drama from writer-director Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex), the actress swings from happy to sad to confused to hopeful, all in milliseconds and with each feeling fully and gracefully conveyed.
Too bad the script isn't as effortless. Bounce's contrived plot has Affleck playing Buddy Amaral, an advertising executive who, thinking he's about to get lucky with an attractive blonde he just met in an airport bar (Natasha Henstridge), gives up his plane ticket to another man (Tony Goldwyn). The plane goes down and the guy dies. A year later, Buddy looks up the man's widow (Paltrow), intending to make amends but instead falling in love with her. "What will happen when she finds out his secret?
Despite many funny and heartfelt moments, Bounce never quite rises above its fundamentally clanking plot. Affleck does his best acting yet, and though he has potent onscreen chemistry with real-life ex-sweetie Paltrow, he can't match her radiance. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Paltrow soars, but Bounce only goes so high
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