The Rebound

I won't lie—I expected terrible things from Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha in their new film The Rebound.  The story, centered around a recently divorced mother of two who finds solace in a much younger man, is neither original nor interesting.  So naturally, I popped the disc into the player and awaited the horrific stench.

Don't be mistaken.  A foul odor definitely filled the room.  However, it wasn't quite as strong as I had originally anticipated.

I highly suspect that this film has been sitting on the Fox shelves for quite some time, and a straight to DVD release seemed feasible given both stars recent success.  And while the romantic comedy genre is a bit lacking at theaters right now, you might consider it a good date-night viewing.  I'm here to tell you it is not.

For starters, the film isn't that funny.   Though tapped as a comedy, most of the humor comes from Sandy's two young kids as their word choices often represent that of a person two or three times their age.  Additionally the film doesn't truly resolve anything.  Sure, we see minor growths within our leading duo, but nothing appears to be resolved by the film's end.  In essence, I didn't feel that we accomplished much during our 90 minutes together.  And it was a shame.

Even the lone bonus feature containing a set of interviews didn't shine much light on the characters and their journey.  So as I took the disc out of the player I had only one question in mind: Was that a rebound?