Bounce

There was a time when Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn could do this kind of thing and get away with it. Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow are not in the same stratosphere.

They are down there among the mortals.

Apart from the sheer dullness of these two, the script by director Don Roos doesn't go anywhere. It starts at A, hiccups on B and ends at C.

A is Chicago airport, snowbound. Only one flight out to Los Angeles in time for Christmas. Affleck gives his ticket to a friendly playwright (Tony Goldwyn) because he's chatting up a sexy blonde (Natasha Henstridge) at the time and thinks he'll get lucky if he stays over.

Plane crashes.

Months later, spurred by guilt and/or boredom, he checks out the playwright's wife (Paltrow) to see how she's handling widowhood. Fine, by the looks of it.

Being that sort of guy, he makes a play for her. He's good, he takes it slow. She's out of practice and falls for his easy confidence.

B is when she discovers the truth about the airport and the ticket. C is when she forgives him.

Don Roos wrote and directed The Opposite Of Sex, with Christina Ricci, which was hailed as a cult hit in 1998. How he could have followed it with this piece of tedious twaddle is beyond speculation.

Since Affleck became a star, he stopped being interesting. The days of Chasing Amy are sadly over. Paltrow has lost her bloom and looks dowdy now. The film is so slow, you have time to notice that he has no earlobes.