| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly
Watching Bounce, you look at him (Affleck) and believe how much he's got at stake, and you look at Paltrow and know why.
|
| 90 |
Mr. Showbiz
Roos combines a sharp script with excellent performances.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
It's a love story, yes, but one whose sweetness is cut by honest performances, a sharply drawn supporting cast and a fairly serious, yet never self-pitying, tone.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
In movies with this story structure, all depends on the precise timing of the delay and the revelation, and Bounce misses. Not by a lot, but by enough.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow are so immensely appealing, and their chemistry together is so unforced, that their presence alone makes a movie worth seeing. Thankfully, Bounce has even more going for it.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
The movie is well acted, deeply moving, and unlike some love stories, it doesn't feel forced or contrived.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
For the first time since "Chasing Amy," I realized why people like Ben Affleck.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Roos introduces the possibility that perhaps two partials add up to the whole truth, and in so doing creates a provocative love story that sticks with you long after the credits roll.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
There's nothing in Bounce you haven't seen before, but the movie is surprisingly unsentimental, the Paltrow factor cannot be denied.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
Bounce may be far from a great film, but its pleasures are consistent enough to remind you of how few movies nowadays come anywhere close to matching it in intelligence and emotional balance.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Thrillingly unpredictable.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
After a few movies in which Paltrow was in danger of becoming a caricature of herself, she's back in rare form.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
Something is missing in Bounce, the muted dynamic of which calls forth a perhaps inevitably muted reaction.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
Beneath the plot's romantic turns lies a surprisingly complex examination of the personal and professional price of honesty; falsehoods, half-truths, little white lies and self-delusion spur most of the key plot developments, and Roos never resorts to platitudes to account for their effects.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
It's the opposite of "The Opposite of Sex," a meditation on multiple truths, and the lies that sometimes lie in between.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
Truth is, Affleck and Paltrow flunk Chemistry 101. They aren't believable even as a fake couple.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Examiner
If I wanted a Nora Ephron cuddle-ganza, I'd rent one.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
The most depressing date movie since "Random Hearts."
|
| 50 |
Film.com
There's no way out of the excruciating melodrama, and the film withers in its trap.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Doesn't really work when examined in the daylight outside the theater doors.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
The unusually thoughtful dialogue and soul-searching performances make this romantic drama seem deeper than it is.
|
| 50 |
Variety
Simultaneously contrived and genuinely felt.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Surprisingly tepid and soapy.
|
| 50 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Flies coach instead of first class, despite a charismatic cast.
|
| 42 |
Portland Oregonian
Isn't sexy, funny, smart or fun.
|
| 40 |
Film.com
While Bounce may mark a sophomore slump for Roos, it's hardly the worst date movie out there.
|
| 30 |
Film.com
Moira Macdonald
So relentlessly vanilla that it never springs to life.
|
| 30 |
Salon.com
A pallid, mediocre tale that treacles its way through well-worn channels.
|
| 30 |
Village Voice
It's been smoothed over plenty, but this is one creaky, rigged contraption.
|
| 30 |
Los Angeles Times
Affleck and Paltrow, who've been excellent elsewhere, display less chemistry than they've shown in magazine photo shoots. Even Woody and Bo Peep had more going on between them in "Toy Story" than these two manage here.
|
| 20 |
Dallas Observer
Moments of strained mirth indicate how false and fabricated the whole enterprise really is--just a couple of well-to-do superstars doing their darnedest to prove to us that they're regular folk. And failing.
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