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The Big Bounce
Reviewed by Rich Drees
When comes the day that someone writes the book When Bad Movies Happen To
Good Actors, there will undoubtedly be a chapter devoted to the latest
film adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, The Big Bounce a film
that lands with nothing more than a dull plop.
Owen Wilson is Jack Ryan, a small time crook who works odd jobs in between
scamming tourists on one of the smaller Hawaiian islands. Although he is
looking to go straight, he can’t resist showing off his criminal talents to
the beautiful Nancy (newcomer Sara Foster) when she reveals she’s attracted
to bad boys. Nancy approaches Jack with a plan to rip off her boyfriend,
real estate magnate Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinese), a business rival of Jack’s
boss Walter (Morgan Freeman). Jack soon finds himself trying to figure out
who is manipulating whom in a web of double-crosses.
In the `70s, Morgan Freeman stressed the importance of learning to read to
millions of kids as Easy Reader on the PBS educational series The
Electric Company. It’s a shame then that he didn’t seem to read the
script to The Big Bounce more carefully before signing on. The movie
is nothing more than a series of scenes that vaguely advance the plot
loosely connected by non-sequetor shots of Hawaiian scenery and surfers. The
film meanders along until it reaches its conclusion. The term climax here
would be inappropriate as it implies that the film actually elevated itself
in terms of tension or excitement. While it may be an attempt by the
director to replicate the easygoing Hawaiian mindset, it’s death as a movie
going experience, barely engaging the viewer in the narrative. While most
film adaptations of novels suffer from having to collapse a dense narrative
down to a more manageable two-hour format, The Big Bounce could have
used a bit more heft and direction to its script. Is this film a comedy, a
heist film or a combination of both? There are only two or three moments
that produce a chuckle.
What’s truly distressing is that a cast as strong as the one assembled here
has so little to do. Owen Wilson is so laid back that he appears to be sleep
walking through some scenes. However in other scenes he manages to deliver
some rather poorly scripted dialog with more conviction than it deserves.
Gary Sinese is barely in the film, while appearances by Charlie Sheen and
Vinnie Jones are both wasted in their small roles. Bebe Neuwirth steals the
end of the film out from under the rest of the cast as Ray Ritchie’s
alcoholic wife. |
