FILM REVIEW
"The Big Bounce"
(Warner Bros.)

Entertainment
Art

By ALEX MECHLIN

Money is the objective of all the characters of "The Big Bounce." It is also the only objective of the movie itself. Not to enlighten or entertain, but to get moviegoers to fork over their ten bucks and not make the least effort to give something back.

The film is based on an Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, and was previously made in 1969 as a Ryan O'Neal vehicle. Good movies such as "Out of Sight," "Jackie Brown," and "Get Shorty" have been based on Leonard's books. In this case the movie just plain doesn't work and is a waste of all the talent involved.

George Armitage directed the film, set in Hawaii, which stars Owen Wilson as a drifter and conman who starts working for Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman), a local judge and real estate developer. In between the constant cuts to stock surfing footage, Wilson meets and falls in love with a femme fatale played by Sarah Foster. She convinces him to participate in a scheme to rob a local businessman (Gary Sinise), which eventually falls apart because of double and triple crosses. Unfortunately, all this happens as if the director edited together the most uninteresting parts of these peoples lives, pieced together with occasionally funny one-liners.

What is a good movie? Good performances, nice locations, beautiful photography? "The Big Bounce" has all of these. But what it does not have is anything resembling an interesting, exciting, or even coherent story. Gags peter out before they get going. Boring scenes drag, while the actors look like they're waiting for the director to call "cut." The scenes sit on the screen like a hot dish long since gone cold. Morgan Freeman wanders in and out of the frame, as if he was just hanging out in Hawaii, and was asked to walk around in front of the camera. And hey, if he felt like saying something to the other actors, why not.

About forty percent of the dialogue is explaining what just happened, or outlining a plan for what will happen, or telling another character information they should already know. This is not a movie, it is a novel. There is no attempt to tell the story visually, unless you count taking the lens cap off the camera. This movie could have been made by anyone or everyone, and I suspect it was. George Armitage has made good films in the past, including "Gross Pointe Blank." The objective tones in both movies were similar, but the executions are so different. Either Armitage was forced to compromise, or he badly mistepped. Why he even started on this project, with this script, is beyond me.

Wilson has some good moments, but they generate a chuckle and then disappear. Nothing is built; every scene resides on the same low key level. Which would be fine is there was some point being made about how aimless these lives are. But there is not. The point is that the studio spent money buying the rights to the book, spent money hiring the actors, and they spent money flying them to Hawaii. I wish they had transferred a dollar or two from Sarah Foster's bikini fund to a script rewrite before the cameras rolled.

What possessed good actors such as Gary Sinise, Vinnie Jones, and Bebe Neuwirth to sign up for this movie? Were they that desperate to see Hawaii? Do they like lounging around with Morgan Freeman? Or were they there for the paycheck? I fear the worst.

It feels like a company produced film, slick in every way but the story execution. But I think this movie did provide a lesson to filmmakers everywhere. When in doubt, cut to some surfing footage. At least there's something at risk there besides falling asleep.