Review: Worth a few laughs

Film: The Rebound
Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Bartha
Director: Bart Freundlich
Rating: **

Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a single mother, moves to New York with her two brats and finds solace in the arms of a much younger Aram Finkelstein (Justin Bartha). This is the May-September formula that is being revisited by Hollywood in an attempt to garner a few laughs.

Sandy lands a job with a sports TV network, holes out in an apartment just above the funky café where Aram works and also enrolls for a self-defense class where Aram happens to be the punching bag (literally!). She also starts dating but ends with all the most unsuitable men in Manhattan. Aram becomes her only recourse and he also happens to be her children's nanny!

It's not much of a story to start with. The narrative is reverently adorned with worn out clichés that are too tired and unremitting to be humorous. The gross-out humor bits that focus on Sandie's obsession with hygiene doesn't appear all that funny because it's not played out very effectively.

Freundlich's narrative spins out quite smoothly, the emotions are held in a tight rein and elements of potential comedy are more or less obscured. The entire experience is so light and indistinct that it could just blow away into nothingness with just the faintest hint of a wind!