Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47007 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-04
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bounce has all the deft charm and breezy good looks you'd expect from a romance starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, but under the surface beats the poisoned heart of an independent film just going through the motions. Affleck plays Buddy Amaral, a successful ad exec with an empty life. In a Chicago airport, he meets Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn), a failed playwright going home to his family and a corrupt job as a TV writer. Buddy, angling for a one-night stand with a fellow passenger, gives Greg his ticket, but feels bad when he discovers the plane crashed and the guy died. He feels so bad, in fact, that when he gets out of rehab a year or so later, he decides to give the guy's widow, real estate agent Abby (Paltrow), commission on the sale of a building for his business, a sale she's not qualified to make. They start dating. She quickly forgets her initial impression of him as a creepy stalker. Affleck is good at playing privileged and shallow; Paltrow does what she can with the prepackaged grief of a widow; Joe Morton has very little to do as Buddy's business partner (but he does it well); and Johnny Galecki shines in a very small part as Buddy's assistant. These are good performances in a rather creepy film by the guy who made The Opposite of Sex. --Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com

On the DVD: as with most two-disc sets the additional material is contained on the second disc and offers the usual assortment of outtakes, "Making of" documentaries and deleted scenes. The highlight is the outtake reel but the Behind the Scenes featurette with Paltrow and Affleck also has its moments with the pair interviewing crew. The 45 minutes of deleted scenes contain two alternative endings. The commentary with director Don Roos and producer Cohen is informative with discussions on narrative structure, context and shooting techniques. All in all this is a packed second disc with enough to keep Affleck or Paltrow fans happy for at least the night. The visual quality of this 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen DVD is crisp and clean throughout. Because the film is heavy on dialogue, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack doesn't really get an opportunity to show off, but the more emotional scenes are all perfectly audible and easy to understand. --Kristen Bowditch

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Disc 1 -- The movie and audio commentary
Disc 2 -- Bonus footage:
Deleted scenes with commentary
Selected scenes with commentary by Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck and Don Roos
Behind the scenes with Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow
All about Bounce
Gag reel
Music video
Languages: Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired
Widescreen 1.85:1

Synopsis
When Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck) decides to have a casual fling with a woman he meets in an airport, he gives up his ticket to Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn), an earnest man on standby for the flight who is desperate to get home to his wife and child. But when the plane crashes because of snowy conditions, killing everyone on board, Buddy plunges into a sea of despair and confusion. At the edge of a nervous breakdown, Buddy seeks out Abby Janello (Gwyneth Paltrow), Greg's widow. He approaches Abby, who works as a real estate agent, under the pretense of finding a new location for his advertising agency. But, he never reveals that he knows about her husband's death. While his only intention is to do a good deed for the grieving Abby, Buddy slowly finds himself falling in love with her, and she responds to him with a similar sincerity. The only thing keeping them apart is the dark secret that Buddy is hiding.
BOUNCE is writer-director Don Roos's follow-up to his engaging, clever, independent debut, THE OPPOSITE OF SEX. Like that film, BOUNCE examplifies Roos's knack for writing witty dialogue and using it to make a intelligent, sweet films.

Customer Reviews

THE SIZZLE FIZZLES...
The movie starts off promisingly enough. Successful businessman, Buddy Amaral, played by Ben Affleck, leads a shallow, sophomoric existence. Failed playwright, Greg Gennello, played by Tony Goldwyn, is happily married and has a rich family life. Their worlds collide when they meet in an airport and get to talking. Both headed to the same destination, Greg wants to get home to his family but is bumped from his flight, while Buddy wants to miss that very same flight so that he can have a one night stand with a beautiful fellow traveler.

In a moment of wild abandon, Buddy gives his ticket to Greg who then boards the plane in his stead. Unfortunately, this act of seeming generosity by Buddy has dire consequences, as the plane crashes and Greg is killed. When Buddy later discovers this turn of events, it is a moment of reckoning for him, and he goes into a personal downward spiral.

A year later, after a stint in rehab to get his drinking under control, he seeks out Greg's widow, Abby, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Still feeling guilty over Greg's death, Buddy seeks redemption by doing something nice for Greg's widow, who, as the single parent of two young boys, is now trying to make ends meet as a real estate agent. He gives her a sizable real estate commission to handle, though she is unqualified, and soon they begin dating and fall in love. At this juncture, Buddy has still not told her that their meeting was not kismet.

To make a long story short, Abby discovers, in a rather unpleasant way, the part that Buddy played in Greg having been on that fatal flight. The movie then goes south. What had started out promisingly enough, takes a strange twist. While there is, undeniably, chemistry between the two stars, which explains their off screen romance, their sizzle is not enough to keep this movie on even keel, and the movie begins to flatline. Notwithstanding the eleventh hour fizzle, however, it is still a moderately enjoyable movie.

An accident brings two hearts together in this superb film
Ben Affleck plays an advertising agent who finds it difficult to cope with the guilt of handing his plane ticket to Greg Janello later to find out the plane crashed. In an attempt to heal the pain and help the suffering, he befriends the widow - Paltrow, initially to make sure she and her kids are financially secure, but Affleck didn't count on falling in love with her. This film of devastation and trust collide to a climax when Paltrow finds out that Affleck was supposed to have been in the place of her late husband on the fatal flight. Would she trust him again, could she forgive him?? An outstanding film that encorporates the hurt of losing someone, to falling in love again, to being able to forgive.

A complete waste of time
In this predictable romance, Ben Affleck plays Buddy, a recovering alcoholic trying to help the people he has hurt in the past. Seeking out Abby (Gwyneth Paltrow), the widow of a man who took his place on an ill-fated flight, the pair inevitably fall in love. Of course, Abby knows nothing of Buddy's tragic link to her family, and this secret occupies much of the film. The problem is, long before the end of the film we are past caring.
Affleck and Paltrow both turn in adequate performances, but the insipid and cliché-ridden script (which includes a clumsy and contrived working-in of the relevance of the title 'Bounce') gives little opportunity for anything more insightful.
The film also contains an interesting plot thread about the spin that the airlines shamelessly put on tragedies, but this is soon dispensed of in favour of more sentimental moments between the two stars.
This could have been a thoughtful film about dealing with bereavement, but instead it quickly descends into saccharine and tedious romance.