Quick Movie Review: Bounce

5/10

I'm going to be cautiously kind to Bounce.

I switched off Ghosts of Mars and there was Henstridge again, though acting for real - and after the earlier film anything was going to look good.

It's the sort of movie you can pretty much sleep through and not miss any major plot points, but I have a certain degree of good will towards it for at least making an overture to breaking the centuries old chains of Romantic Comedy criteria.

Ben Affleck's high fling ad-exec decides to give his air ticket away in order to spend a night with Natasha Henstridge; the beneficiary being recently a humiliated playwright who wants to get home to sell Christmas trees with his son and see his family.

The plane crashes, and Affleck's character is all but destroyed by survivors' guilt - descending into alcoholism and despair, before finally being admitted to rehab after a disastrous performance at an awards dinner.

As part of Alcoholics Anonymous (which, incidentally, I didn't realise was quite so God-oriented) the members are encouraged to seek out those they have "wronged" and apologise. Not really caring that the whole thing is not really is fault, Affleck seeks out the family of the playwright only to find that he was married to the ever-perky Gwyneth Paltrow.

From the very moment he doesn't tell her the truth immediately, the film is seemingly on rails - with one major difference. The ending is not a universally, unquestionably happy one, though redemption is sought and maybe achieved.

Affleck and Paltrow are not two of my favourite actors, but after the horrors of Ghosts Of Mars, I was glad to see something that does the job as required, even if not being particularly special in the process.

As such, a classic 5/10 contender and vastly superior to the similarly plane crash premised Random Hearts, a lousy Harrison Ford snoozefest from many years ago.

A