Big Bounce, The
1/2

This may seem like sacrilege to some, but I have never in my life read an Elmore Leonard novel. I hear that they are enjoyable reads, fast-paced, surprising and fun, but I've never so much as picked one up. Don't know why really; when something is highly-praised, I try to check it out, so who knows?

Maybe it's this unfamiliarity with the source material that allowed me to enjoy, on some level, The Big Bounce, the latest Leonard adaptation. By pretty much any standard, it's a bad movie, but I was almost convinced it's a good one. It doesn't work, but I was almost fooled into thinking it does. I dunno, maybe I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, but the movie's glaring problems and inconsistancies didn't really bother me that much until the end, when they all started piling up. So The Big Bounce doesn't succeed, but credit all around for almost managing to trick me.

Owen Wilson stars as Jack Ryan, a surfer/ex-criminal now living in Hawaii for some reason. He's working at a hotel construction site, and when a conflict causes him to hit his boss with an aluminum bat, he is in trouble again. After serving a short prison term, he is, er, advised to get off the island. The owner of the hotel being built, Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise) doesn't need any trouble surrounding his business, so he gets his partner, Bob Rogers, Jr. (Charlie Sheen) to put some pressure on Jack. But the corrupt district judge, Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman), intervenes, and offers Jack a job at his resort. While there, Jack meets Nancy Hayes (Sara Foster), who sets up an elaborate plan to steal $200,000 from Ray. Of course, twists follow.

The structure of the narrative poses a significant problem. Many characters are underdeveloped, including several key to the final twist, and their seeming unimportance makes the surprise hard to swallow. Also, minor plot lines are dropped or go nowhere, and several pointless scenes occur almost randomly. And, for a large portion of the running length, plot takes a backseat to scenery and Foster's gorgeous body. The narrative is advanced with little subtle hints and discussions, which can be an effective method, but here it just makes us not care.

So without a compelling narrative to fall back on, The Big Bounce has to rely on little details and individual scenes - vignettes - to succeed. Many of the details are great, including some terrific one-liners ("God is an imaginary friend for grownups" being just one example) and a few entertaining sight gags, and the scenery is lovely. Some scenes work wonderfully, but only because of Owen Wilson's laid-back slacker charm and his matter-of-fact way of delivering his dialogue ("Let's go steal a car", "You said you had a tire iron"). It really is a good performance, and few scenes without him work.

Newcomer Sara Foster is also charming (and beautiful). Her character isn't tremendously interesting, so the fact that she makes us care is significant. The chemistry between Wilson and Foster isn't overwhelming, but it is noticeable, and there's enough there to make us buy their relationship. Gary Sinise is only in a few scenes, and he's good enough. Charlie Sheen is just decent, and Morgan Freeman gets to pick up a paycheck. He's fine, but this isn't anything special.

Still, for all its problems, The Big Bounce kept me entertained until the third act, where it pretty much falls apart. It's a mess, but a fun one nevertheless, and you could do a lot worse if you're looking for 90 minutes of disposable entertainment.

© 2004 Matt Noller