The Rebound

With the release of Catherine Zeta-Jones' movie The Rebound, we have an opportunity to see a story starring an "older" woman exploring issues of age, relationships, choices and personal fulfillment. I am delighted to welcome guest writer,  The Occasional Critic for a spot-on review of the film:

 

When did age become a number rather than an accumulation of experience?  What does it mean to say someone is forty, or twenty-five, or sixty-five?  Is the number relevant shorthand or does it lead to lazy assumptions about experience, insight, self-knowledge?  Numbers abound in the new movie by writer Bart Freundlich (yes, he is ten years younger than his wife Julianne Moore), starring Catherine Zeta-Jones (who is indeed forty and twenty-five years younger than her husband, Michael Douglas), playing a newly-divorced forty-ish mother of two, restarting life and career in New York after discovering the infidelity of her husband.   Freundlich shows his hand early on, numbers up, cards on the table, and then shuffles and re-deals with some thought-provoking insights along the way.

Attractive, articulate woman, two independent, sassy children, surrounded by supportive, accomplished female friends, finds a terrific job, cute apartment and …before you know it….a sweet, eager to please male child-minder into the bargain.  So far, so predictable.  The darker side of failed marriage, of lost confidence and self-esteem, of derailed goals and aspirations is left aside.  The Rebound plays out the story of “finding yourself” on a carefully edited stage-set – leaving one to wonder, “where are the cockroaches?” – both real and metaphorical.  Before long, Freundlich provides the answer:  the cockroaches are the people in your life who take away your voice and your volition; the people who invade and dominate and leave you wondering “how on earth did I end up so far away from the place I imagined I would be?”

 Providing a moment of pure visceral revulsion, Freundlich perhaps overplays the stereotypical suffocating older man taking Zeta-Jones out on her first post-divorce date (suffice it to say that it will be a long time before I eat salmon sashimi again!).

 Yet, he neatly maintains a quiet sub-plot that reminds us that the cockroaches in life are not gender and age specific: the 25 year old manny, Arum, played by (32 year old) Justin Bartha, has his own story of abused affection and misplaced trust. Perhaps guileless, innocent….young (!), he is seduced by a woman in need of a green card who promptly leaves him for the real object of her affection once her immigration goal is satisfied.   Slyly, Freundlich reminds us that we are all complex combinations of innocence and experience, knowledge and ignorance, naiveté and knowingness, and that none of these are the exclusive province of age.  

Despite a fairy-tale conclusion, a Conde-Nast travelogue voyage of self-discovery, a politically correct array of religions, roles and races, and an exquisitely maintained face and body on Catherine Zeta-Jones, The Rebound manages to be more than its glossy and sanitized package.  It reminds us that we must look hard at what and who we want ourselves to be; to give voice and articulation to that ambition; to value and accept the generosity of others and to accept life’s opportunities at any age. A reminder to dispense with the insulting labels of “toy-boys” and “cougars” and respect the personal qualities that are to be treasured wherever and at whatever age they emerge.

Watch the trailer: