The Rebound

I admit it, I like movies. A film that transports me to see things in a different way, or inspires me, or explores deep and complex questions where the language of cinema can transcend the limitations of words and other media.

But some people I know don’t think like that. What’s worse, they’re not stupid or uneducated or lacking in taste. They just expect a movie to entertain. Much like food stops you being hungry. You go in the cinema, buy some overpriced sweets, sit down, and switch off your brain. Simple. Maybe they’ve had a long day. Maybe they’re on a date. Maybe they just fancied a night out. They don’t care too much about the movie as long as it’s easily digestible, starts and finishes at a convenient time, and has free parking nearby.

Is that so wrong? It doesn’t even have to be that good, it just has to tick some boxes. A bit like this one.

The Rebound is a light romcom where Sandy (Catherine Zeta Jones) is a beautiful, smart, suburban 40-year-old mother who discovers her husband is cheating on her and takes her two children to New York City for a fresh start. She gets a new job and meets Aram, a sweet 24 year-old graduate who's at a low point in his life - he found out his French wife of two weeks duped him into marrying so she could get a green card. Aram works at a coffee-shop but is great at babysitting. Eventually the inevitable happens and they hit it off despite the age difference.

The style has similarities to Sex And The City in its pacing and heavy sprinkling of sexual innuendos, but really succeeds around Catherine Zeta-Jones, who soon reminds us she is an Oscar-rated actress even in this most undemanding of roles. Justin Bartha is reasonably amusing as Aram. The other characters are more two-dimensional.

Zeta-Jones commands the stage and has some nice fluffiness for us to contemplate as we search for the car park ticket on the way out. “I think what’s endearing and universal to the piece is that divorce and break-ups don’t just happen to women and neither do the emotions that come out of them. The Rebound shows us these events and emotions also happen to men. I also like what the script says about relationships. When they break up everyone thinks there’s no hope in hell that you will find love again, but you can.”

I am a bit at a loss to explain why a woman who can act, sing and dance as well as Catherine Zeta Jones should put herself through such silliness, but she is quick to explain. “My character goes through this horrific dating process and I've heard countless stories from my girlfriends who are the same age and are in this position. When you're married you think your life is complete forever, then you get divorced and you have to start over again and go out into the marketplace, for want of a better word. At some point you just have to laugh at all these situations that happen when your life turns around on a dime and The Rebound helps us see this.”

That is so horrific that I feel deeply moved. I’ll get the giant popcorn next time. But to be fair, unlike Sex And The City where males are mere bit-players in the big scheme of things, Aram could strike a chord with any guy who might fancy his chances with a woman who is of a considerably different age and class than he is. Never mind if you can’t take her out and pay pay pay in the style she ‘deserves’ – just go to a really awful theatre where your terrible acting friends are producing a boring play. Being a dream lady, she will not only sit through it attentively and be polite to your geeky friends, but practically eat your face off on the dance floor afterwards.

You become parted irrevocably but, as Catherine says, your life will suddenly turn on a dime and the fairy godmother of happy endings will make everything right before you have to get home for the babysitter. Don’t tell anyone, but I enjoyed it. I know I shouldn’t...