Forces of Nature ** (1999, Sandra Bullock, Ben Affleck, Maura Tierney) – Classic Movie Review 2055

Director Bronwen Hughes’s 1999 romcom stars Sandra Bullock as a daffy aircraft passenger who is grounded in New York by a plane crash and joins exciting co-passenger Ben Affleck on an endlessly fraught trains-planes-automobiles trip to Georgia.

Affleck plays book-jacket writer Ben Holmes, who just catches the last plane to Savannah for his wedding but a seagull flies into the engine as it is taking off. When all flights are cancelled because of an approaching hurricane, he is forced to hitch a ride in a Geo Metro with attractive but eccentric Sarah Lewis.

Thanks to Marc Lawrence’s mild and patchy screenplay, this is a rather shaky old-style romantic comedy, with new-style aggressive characters and harsh music – plus a symbolic hurricane.

There are some funny moments and clever scenes in this watchable movie, and Bullock and Affleck are always amiable and pleasant company. But they don’t seem to have enough charisma, sexual chemistry or comedy flair here to make it work really well. There’s also a sense of deja-vu as the set-up bears a resemblance to the better Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), both featuring a businessman who has to return home in a short amount of time and finds himself in the company of an abrasive loudmouth.

Also in the cast are Maura Tierney, Steve Zahn, Blythe Danner, Ronny Cox, Michael Fairman, James Carroll, David Strickland, Anne Hainey, Richard Schiff and Bert Remsen. The score is composed by John Powell.

Geography isn’t the film’s strong point. The movie is supposed to start at a New York airport, but the terminal is clearly Washington Dulles. Later, the stars are seen sitting in an outdoor location in front of a large rusty globe, which is in Savannah, though this is in an early scene long before the two characters have reached Savannah. And the driving scene near the end of the film on the island that’s supposedly Hawaii is actually at Trunk Bay in the US Virgin Islands.

Marc Lawrence is also known for The Out-of-Towners (1999), Miss Congeniality (2000), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), Two Weeks Notice (2002), Music and Lyrics (2007), Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) and The Rewrite (2014).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2055

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