The Rebound

July 30, 2023

The Rebound is an unusual and unexpectedly interesting romance movie from 2009 (although not released in the U.S. until 2012, and only as direct-to-DVD) starring the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones.

It is, in today's language, woke and blue pilled, yet at times deeply offensive, and some might claim it contains white savior complex and colonialist attitudes.

The plot revolves around an aimless not-quite-divorced childless 25-year old man and a newly divorced 40-year old mother of two (played by Mrs. Zeta-Jones) who get entangled.

The movie is mostly well structured, but the beginning feels rushed and towards the end the user is treated to a montage that structurally wouldn't have been out of place in Rocky 4.

Stylistically the movie starts out as something not far removed from the underwhelming movie Along Came Polly or the repulsive The Sweetest Thing, before settling in a more serious mode that eventually veers towards the territory of the overbearing The Family Stone, but fortunately without getting there.

The first half or so of the movie is also jarringly heavy on product placements.

An additional layer is added by the Jewish family dynamics that surface throughout the movie, including a career-related sub-plot that comes across as rather subversive.

Overall, it's not a bad movie, it just doesn't quite stick the landing as a romance movie. For an alternative Catherine Zeta-Jones movie from the same era I strongly recommend No Reservations, which I will possibly write about in the near future.