The Rebound
Tags: comedy, romantic

Plot synopsis:
A housewife and mother of two, Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones), discovers that her husband has been unfaithful. After a hasty divorce, she moves to New York City with her young son and daughter. There, they begin a new life. Sandy rents an apartment above a coffee house and befriends one of the baristas, Aram Finklestein (Justin Bartha). At age 25, Aram is not sure what he wants to do with his life having just separated (his wife was a French woman who married him for a green card). Despite having a college degree, he is aimless and gets a job at a women's center. During a self-defense class at the women's center where Aram plays the perpetrator, Sandy unleashes an "ocean of anger" on him. The next day, she goes to the coffeeshop to apologize to him and asks him to babysit her kids. He becomes a full-time nanny for the family and develops a close-knit relationship with the children; and a chemistry starts to brew between Aram and Sandy, ensuing in an awkward sexual encounter that the children come to know about.
Notwithstanding, they start to date; and, after two months, they seem perfect together. One day, Sandy feels nauseated and suspects she is pregnant. Aram is thrilled and looks forward to raising a child with her. A doctor confirms that Sandy is pregnant, but it is an ectopic pregnancy and will result in a miscarriage. As they leave the doctor, a fight breaks out between Aram and Sandy, with the latter confirming that she thinks it's ludicrous that the two of them, with an age difference of 15 years, would ever be happy together. After the break up, Aram decides to travel the world and to experience new things. Sandy is promoted at her sports news job to anchor.
After five years, the two meet again in a chance encounter at a Chinese restaurant. Aram reveals he has adopted a young boy from Bangladesh and is still single. Sandy, who is celebrating another promotion with her children and a colleague, invites Aram and his family to join them. The film ends as the two hold hands underneath the table whilst their children start to bond implying that went on to rekindle their relationship.

Review: There's none of the commercial, fake feel some romantic comedies have, or the ones that try to be funny and are not, this is a daring romantic comedy, really in tune with our times that breaks with some stereotypes.Great acting, both by the adults and the kids (you can't help falling in love with Justin Bartha and this is some of the best performances I've seen from Catherine Zeta Jones, like a million times better than Intolerable Cruelty), interesting storyline, nice imagery of New York City and a movie I want to see again!
This was not helped by a rushed, detached start which made me feel doubtful that the movie would pick up from there.However, The Rebound quickly takes a swift turn for the feel-good drama and I was very impressed as it became not only a light romantic comedy but more a well-thought, rounded character drama with all sorts of little sub-plots, rich character development, great performances, and a genuine likability to every part of the movie.
The REBOUND is a romantic comedy, that follows the story of Sandy (Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones – Chicago, The Mask of Zorro series, Entrapment, Traffic) as a happily contented wife and mother – that one day comes across a revealing video on her computer of her husband having an affair with another woman.
She leaves the family home and takes her two children to start afresh in New York – looking for work within her favourite pastime (sports statistics) – and living in an apartment above a coffee shop.At the same time, Aram (Justin Bartha) – who works in the coffee shop, is just getting over his new french bride dumping him - as soon as she's achieved her "green card" status.
Adequately directed by Bart Freundlich, and very well acted by the Main leads – this story moves along well and is one of the better chick flicks out there – and, as always, it stands or falls on the chemistry of the main actors (which works in this case) – and as usual all the best one-liners come from the two children "Sometimes you need to travel the world - to discover what you really needed all along was right here at home "I would say that for it class and genre, that this would be a successful movie and is recommended as a romantic comedy.
It is a sensitive but sexy movie about a woman in her forties and her post-divorce encounters with different feelings like hatred, low self-esteem, domestic problems and her personal life.
The movies which are most difficult for me to write a review about are not those which provoke nausea because of their horrible technical and creative quality; neither are those which renew my faith in cinema with an unusual display of greatness.The most difficult movies to write a review about are the simply mediocre ones, which provide the minimum quantity of entertainment in order not to get us bored, but without any ambition of transcending that basic function and say something more, or make us feel something.The Rebound is one of those movies.Bart Freundlich's direction is too bland and impersonal, because he does not bring too much passion to his work.On the positive side from The Rebound, we have the naturalness in the characters and their attitudes.I was very grateful not to see "meet cute" (the casual and funny first encounter between the main characters), or ridiculous public humiliations to show the love between the couple, or artificial obstacles in the romance to create suspense about the invariable reconciliation.Well, there are obstacles, but they feel more honest and realistic for being based on the age difference between the two main characters.And even though Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha are not a precisely blistering couple, their affinity and attraction feel credible.It is definitely a paradox, but I think those positive elements also are fails from the movie.I did not feel too much interest in the future from the couple, or in their evolution.Zeta-Jones and Bartha make a decent work, but the screenplay does not give them too much to do.Talking about Zeta-Jones, the only specific moment which endures in my memory is a scene in which her character goes to a class of self-defense, and she fights against a "criminal" disguised as a Sumo wrestler.That scene was obviously designed for provoking laughs, but there is a moment in which we see intense emotion and frustration because of her recent divorce in the main character's eyes.It was on that moment when I remembered that Zeta-Jones can be a very competent actress when she works with the right material, so it was a bit of a pity to see her relatively wasted during the rest of the film, because her talent goes further.In summary, I think I can give a slight recommendation to The Rebound, mainly because it is never boring.But at the same time it is moderately entertaining, it is also bland and absolutely forgettable..
for a person who never have special feeling toward Catherine Zeta-Jones, this piece of work of her playing a middle aged mother is truly the best one from her career as far as I believe.
the kids are too cute, they are funny and cute and you can see how beautiful relation they have with their Mom and their Manny(man who is a nanny).so all in all this movie is a brilliant romantic comedy cute funny and beautiful, go watch it, if you haven't yet, Its light and refreshing..
One can only pity the creator's of this bomb for simply getting everything wrong."The Rebound" is a movie which tries so hard to be smart, funny, romantic, entertaining and heartwarming but falls oh so flat on its face on all accounts.I was initially tempted to point out its abundant faults and foibles, but honestly, it simply isn't worth the time and effort.
But maybe, it was me who was unable to connect enough with the end and felt it was a bit cheesy, so that is why I say it's good ending and probably faithful, successfully escaping the clichés.The whole movie is unique for the genre He represents, from the basic story, an older woman (but very hot) and younger man are having a relationship.
The Rebound is a movie that tells the story of Sandy (Catherine Zeta- Jones), a woman that after knowing about her husband infidelity, decides to move on and tries to make a new life with her 2 kids in the city.
Two bruised souls, a mother of two, who recently separated from her cheating husband, and a young(er) man, whose ex-girlfriend basically used him to get a green card, meet, then meet again during a women's self defense class (arguably the seriously funniest bit in the entire movie) and finally they agree on a business arrangement: he is gonna watch the kids while she is trying to get her life back on track.
As the title implies, Sandy (Zeta- Jones) is a typical 40 year-old full-time mother who one day, ends up alone with her kids and has to start living on her own.
Aram becomes acting nanny for Sandy's kids and meanwhile, both start an extremely weird relationship.At no point does the direction or writing make a good job at showing what really goes on with those two.
The rebound, starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Justin Bartha is a very cute romantic comedy.
If anyone actually like the ending, he or she must be either masochist or female at the age of 11-14 or +40 year old single women, seriously.I want to make a full review but its not worth it wearing out my keyboard.
the base of the story isn't that original.i mean the first thing that comes to mind when you see it's about single-parenting is clichéd and over-used.which is exactly what I thought but boy was I wrong.the take on this concept is amazing.instead of taking the usual depressing/boring story about life is so hard as a single parent they chose humor it was a great decision.the humor was great without being disrespectful or trying too hard.th script was very well written.but what deserves most credit is th casting and the cast itself.every actor suited the role so well it was like they were made for it.the chemistry between Catherine zeta jones and Justin bartha is great but it's also very balanced as if not to give too much considering the age difference shown in the film.my favorite part of the movie were the kids.they did an absolutely phenomenal job.seriously i'm a harsh judge of child stars.i usually think they're over the top and bad actors but these kids were great,over the top maybe but that's what their characters were like.
the whole family worked pretty well together I don't know if they just got lucky or something but for I thought the casting was perfect.so if you're looking for a good comedy with humorful jokes and a relatable story line this film is definitely for you.
A bit like this one.The Rebound is a light romcom where Sandy (Catherine Zeta Jones) is a beautiful, smart, suburban 40-year-old mother who discovers her husband is cheating on her and takes her two children to New York City for a fresh start.
Its described as a "sexy romantic comedy" and its moderately entertaining with a few funny moments and likable characters in Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha who provide a somewhat intriguing romance with the whole older woman-younger guy hook.I did want to see how this was going to play out, if and how our couple would get together in the end.
As you would expect in a movie made for women, Catherine Zeta Jones' character is pretty human and her protagonist played by Justin Bartha is superhuman: young and good looking but likes older women, way more mature than he should be for his age, loves other peoples' children, shy but outspoken when it matters, and of course he is not interested in other women.You know the story.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is Sandy, fresh off a divorce, starting a new job as a sports writer, and trying to meet a man.
Including montages that are so poorly edited you have no idea how much time was supposed to have passed, jokes delivered by the supporting cast fall flat, and the tediousness of knowing where they are going but they are taking forever to get there.However Zeta-Jones and Bartha are able to add likability, freshness and a fun factor to their characters that you find yourself rooting for them and generally enjoying yourself when you're in their presence.
In any case, this film is edited, at the scene where in the trailer you see a kid ask Justin Bartha if he was peeing into Catherine Zeta-Jones.
So much for a joke that's not given a runway to build up.Written and directed by Bart Freundlich, The Rebound tells the story of how the going to be divorced mom Sandy (Zeta-Jones) had relocated herself and her two kids Sadie (Eliza Callahan / Kelly Gould) and Frank Jr (Andrew and Jake Cherry) to New York City to start their lives anew, and runs into a drifting Aram Finklestein (Justin Bartha) who's still at the crossroads of his life, not knowing what to do with it and taking the odd jobs as a barista, and helping out at a Women's home.
Freundlich brings about tried and tested scenes pulled from a typical romantic comedy genre, and it actually just coasts along as we see how the couple tries to figure out their relationship, which of course serves up the requisite frowns from friends and family, especially Aram's (played by Art Garfunkel - yes that Garfunkel!
There's this other out of this world comedic situation involving Sandy and her blind date who turns out to be a chiropractic practitioner with some really filthy habits.However for all the ideas that the narrative had built up, there's a nagging suspicion that it didn't know how to end, which accounted for its very abrupt final act that continued along the path of each lead character's growth in life and finding their true calling.
For what it's worth there's even an Eat Pray Love inspired montage sequence for Aram, before everything fizzled hurriedly back to the usual Hollywood finale, that while it was a tremendous letdown, still makes this an ideal choice as a date movie even though it comes with that empty feeling at the end of it all..
As Shirley MacLaine so memorably says in the fantastic movie Rumor Has It, "Everyone needs someone in their life to let them know when youth has come to an end." For Catherine Zeta-Jones, that person was whoever convinced her to make the film The Rebound.
i kinda like the movie...because i like Catherine and i am into romantic movies....but it was a little boring....the plot is a middle aged woman Catherine is divorced and bumped into a young guy who is her baby sitter and fall in love ...on the other side the young guy Justin is also divorced but things with them did not work out so well and they get parted and reunites like many movies...........coming to the roles Catherine is amazing as always and Justin is good at his character but the romance between them is not so good....i mean i liked it but there is something missing....i hope it has more to it....finally i would say its not a bad movie for once to watch..........
Normally rom-coms aren't my thing but Catherine Zeta Jones playing a newly separated Mum approaching my own age had me checking it out, though admittedly I hadn't set my sights very high.Probably a bit better and enjoyable than my 6 stars might indicate, it was actually the kids that made this movie for me.
This film is about a recently divorced woman with two children, who falls for her 24 year old babysitter guy.I was hoping "The Rebound" to be a funny romantic comedy, but it was not.
Aram is a very likable young man who is slightly adrift in life because he is recently divorced and has a lot of trouble relating to people his age most likely because the one friend he does seem to have commits 90% of his dialogue to sex for example at one point Aram asks "Do you ever think about kids?" and he replies "I think about making them all the time" and proceeds to hump a nearby counter.
The ReboundAfter she found out that her husband cheated, a housewife and a dedicated mother Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) decided to move to New York City for a fresh start and met a young man Aram Finklestein (Justin Bartha), a college graduate who works in a coffee shop right below her apartment.
She spent her spare time with her kids and the babysitter Aram and got to know him well and noticed that Aram were funny, kind, and a lot more adult than the other men she met.I really like the chemistry of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha.
But it makes sense, who would have thought that their broke up would make them a better person, would lead them to fulfillment and satisfaction and finally reach happiness?This film presented a burnt out mother, who gave up everything for her family, her dreams, and her social life to be able to be a full time house wife, and a dedicated mother but what she gets in return, her husband cheated on her.They also highlight the common lament of women when a woman got married, become a housewife and a mother, most likely forgotten their own ambition and dreams as individual.
What topped the madness off for me was the film's insane ending, where the main character Aram Finkelstein - on his trip round the world after vainly attempting to court Catherine Zeta Jones and her kids - passes a young Bangladeshi boy on the steps of some religious temple and they exchange a furtive, coy little glance.
"Sandy" (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and "Aram" (Justin Bartha) were so cute as a couple and played so extraordinarily well opposite one another that I was so drawn into the story that I couldn't wait to see how it was going to turn out.
They both end up falling in love but the age difference feels like an obstacle for them.A pretty nice romantic comedy.
Catherine Zeta Jones plays a great character and I always love her performances but I felt for the time frame given her emotions were over the top and fake.
To make matters worse, he's really boring, and there is no chemistry between him and Catherine Zeta Jones....but this a Hollywood movie so they have to have some kind of relationship and then breakup.He travels the world for five years, it's never explained how he can afford this, I assume his father is rich and pays for it.
The character she portrayed in this film would have been more believable if she were portrayed ironically by fellow Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon (whom I just criticised for being miscast in my review for 'This Means War') and I have to say Witherspoon is the better actress of the two.The story goes, Sandy (Zeta Jones) catches her husband cheating then moves to New York City with her two children after the divorce, where she meets a down-on-his-luck younger man with whom she begins a relationship.The funny scenes were unintentional, the intentional gags were unfunny and the acting was over the top for no reason at all.
OKAY, so let me start off by saying, I viewed this movie as someone who typically doesn't like Catherine Zeta Jones in the slightest.
Although a little predictable at times (like most romantic comedies), it is well thought out and the acting , especially Justin Bartha, is spot on.