Bounce (BLU-RAY)

Slick talking young ad-exec, Buddy (Ben Affleck) spends the night in an airport bar chatting with Mimi (Natasha Henstridge), and Greg (Tony Goldwyn). Fresh off a success high from an airline deal, Buddy & Mimi tease Greg about this rather normal, unadventrous, slow lane life. However, when Greg mentions he's missing out on putting up the tree with his kids, Buddy offers to trade tickets; allowing Buddy the chance to spend the night with Mimi. 

The next morning Mimi & Buddy awake to find out the plane crashed just after take-off killing all passangers aboard. Buddy returns to work, hoping to work through his survivor's guilt. However the agency  wants to work on new ads to soothe potential customer concerns about flying the recently troubled airline. Buddy can't abide this detached business approach and feeling personally responsible for Greg's death, he slides into a year of drinking and depression.

On his way to getting sober, he decides to make amends with Greg's wife, Abby (Gwenyth Paltrow). He helps her real estate venture get off the ground, meets the kids and forms a friendship. As their relationship develops into something more, Buddy has a harder time coming clean with Abby until Mimi unknowningly bursts their bubble with a video taken the night of the crash.

I am not usually one for romance, but found this to be a touching drama. The characters felt much more like real people than those usually found in romcoms. Also unlike other romances and romance comedies, this story focused on Buddy falling in love with Abby. Buddy also fosters a friendship with gay co-worker Seth (Johnny Galecki) that isn't used for cheap homophobic jokes. The subject matter of death, deceit, gray areas, and other complicated feelings were explored very well.

The Blu-Ray picture is stunning and the disc is packed with extras; including optional endings to the original cut of the film. The only strange thing was when selecting "trailers" from the special features menu; trailers from other movies are shown, but none for Bounce.

DVD Images

Cover: 

bounce.jpg [13]