Forces of Nature (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/forcesofnature.html Member: Online Film Critics Society
Pacing has proved very important in comedies; consistency is almost always a virtue (unless of course the subject in question is consistently unfunny). When a movie is consistently amusing, it will always be a good one, no matter how reprehensibly pointless said movie might be. But when a film resembles a roller coaster; constantly changing from lively to slow, from funny to pathetic, it becomes almost unredeemable because viewers almost have to brace themselves for the next change of pace. The eagerly awaited romantic comedy Forces of Nature is so wildly inconsistent, it plays lke a roller coaster. And as much as I love roller coasters, films that are roller coasters often prove to be a bit too much -- or, sometimes, too little. Sandra Bullock's talent has been universally underutilized. She's been an action hero in Speed and The Net, she's been in kitschy love stories (does While You Were Sleeping ring a bell), and now she's cast in this minefield of a role; but she has been in nary a serious role, one where she could really show off her acting chops. Why not? I have no clue, because as she has demonstrated over the course of her career, and as she demonstrates in Forces of Nature she is a much more versatile, capable and entertaining actress than she's been given credit for.
Here, she is the shining star in an otherwise dull and bland sky. She plays Sara Lewis, a seemingly happy-go-lucky chick who meets up with the film's real protagonist when their plane crashes (without taking off). The point of Forces of Nature is really to track the course of "jacket copyrighter" Ben Holmes' journey from New York to Georgia for his wedding. After the aforementioned plane crash, Holmes decides to play it safe with ground transportation, and Sara drags along. What follows is a drug bust, a hurricane, a mistaken identity caper and, of course, a shopping spree at Kmart. Can Holmes get to his wedding in time? Do we care?
During the journey we find that Sara is not really as free and careless as she seems. We discover that the deceptively assured Holmes is really quite insecure about the marriage that he is about to enter. And of course everything goes wrong down in Georgia where his impatient wife and her impatient parents are going nuts over the fact that it's taking Holmes two days to get from New York to Savannah for his wedding. But we never feel any sense of urgency about Holmes' tardiness, nor do we experience any emotional connection to Sara or much sympathy for her troubled life.
Forces of Nature is a feather-light comedy that aims low and achieves less. Bullock is indeed excellent, and her portrayal of a free spirit is momentarily uplifting. Ben Affleck on the other hand proves too likeable for his own good, to the point where he is not a real person but a cloying mechanism to suck up to the audience. Some of the movie's sequences shine, such as the scene where Affleck is gently forced to strip at a gay bar, but some are forced and catastrophically implausible -- would you believe that two people could climb on top of a train full of passengers and start screaming at the top of their lungs without anyone so much as noticing? Or that any self-respecting human being would literally try to hitchhike from New York to Georgia?
Director Bronwen Hughes (Harriet the Spy) stages some hilarious scenes but also some that make you cringe and some that are all too predictable. Consider, for example, the part where Holmes poses as a doctor on a bus full of seniors. Can you guess what happens next?
There are moments when Forces of Nature seems truly alive and throbbing with joy. But overwhelmingly the movie is ordinary and sub-par as a romantic comedy. The only part of the film that hints at any substance is its love-it-or-hate-it ending, which I will not go so far as reveal. Some viewers will eat it up thinking it is the only segment of the film that has any depth. More superficial moviegoers (not that there's anything wrong with that) may feel cheated because the conclusion gives the viewer a feeling that the past two hours were completely pointless. But of course, many will feel that they were pointless anyway.
©1999 Eugene Novikov
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