The Big Bounce (2004)
Directed by George Armitage
Written by Sebastian Guttierez
Starring Owen Wilson, Sara Foster, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise, Vinnie Jones, Morgan Freeman
Release Date January 30th, 2004
Published February 3rd, 2004
The books of Elmore Leonard have been adapted for the screen more than John Grisham’s have and almost as often as Stephen King’s have. And like Grisham and King’s adaptations, they are extremely hit and miss. When they're good, like Out Of Sight, Jackie Brown, or Get Shorty, they are very good. When they are bad they are very bad like 1997's Touch starring Skeet Ulrich. Or bad like the first time Leonard's novel The Big Bounce was brought to the screen in 1969--a humorless, dull caper flick with Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor Young. The latest adaptation of The Big Bounce at least brings a little light humor to its throwaway caper plot, but it is just as inconsequential as the original and yet another letdown of it's source material.
The Big Bounce stars Owen Wilson as small time criminal Jack Ryan, a con man looking to lay low on the big island of Hawaii. Unfortunately, Jack is the type who can't avoid trouble and while working a construction gig, he can't help but draw the ire of his bosses, evil land developers played by Gary Sinise, Charlie Sheen and Vinnie Jones. Jack's one friend, Frank (Gregory Sporleder), isn't much help either, encouraging Jack to get back into the breaking and entering racket to help Frank pay off his numerous debts.
Then Jack meets real trouble in the form of his former boss's mistress Nancy (Sara Foster), a sun-baked surf goddess with a penchant for those unfortunate criminal types like Jack. Nancy is working an angle to steal money from Sinise's evil land developer and enlists Jack to help her pull it off. This begins a fun little romance plot with the very sexy Foster getting Wilson's surfer dude con-man into all sorts of trouble. All of which leads to a major twist involving a local judge played by Morgan Freeman and Sinise's drunkard wife played by Bebe Neuwirth.
In the Elmore Leonard universe of hip lingo and languid humor, The Big Bounce is a fun, if forgettable little story, sexy and surprising and always cool. In the film however every bit of humor is strained for and the coolness that Leonard has always injected through dialogue and setting is replaced by Wilson's charming surfer attitude. Wilson is charming and funny but out of place. His character is so laid back and care free that there never seems to be anything at stake.
For his part Sinise would seem to be pivotal in the plot but he is merely a cameo in the film. Instead, the bad guy slack is picked up by Sheen in a role that is badly miscalculated and mind blowingly out of place. Sheen's dunderheaded character is never a threat to anyone and thus has no weight in scenes where he is seemingly the heavy. His character's relationship with Wilson's character is confusing; are they friends? He did bail jack out of jail. They fight, but why they are fighting and why does nothing of consequence happen after the fight? It all just adds to the confounding dynamic between Wilson and Sheen.
For his part, Owen Wilson is the film’s best asset. His laid back charm is fun and enjoyable but it has little context. The romance with Foster is fun and sexy, Foster is unbelievably gorgeous, but the plot is Byzantine in explaining whether they have feelings for one another or not and is noncommittal about those feelings all the way to the films unsatisfying conclusion.
On the bright side, when it's freezing cold and there is a foot of snow on the ground it is nice to escape for ninety or so minutes of fun in the sun on the beaches of Hawaii. But that is not nearly enough for me to recommend The Big Bounce.
