What Do The Critics Say?

"Zeta-Jones has undoubtedly crossed that threshold that separates the young from the old. So it’s no wonder the spin on her latest romantic comedy is that of an older woman hooking up with a much, much younger guy. It’s the natural progression of things before she gets penciled into nothing but old spinster roles. Zeta-Jones too, does an adequate job in her role as the cradle-robbing business woman. She appears comfortable in her character’s skin." THE CRITICAL MOVIE CRITICS "I don't remember seeing anything about this movie, it was recommdended to me by a friend. But I really liked it, it was so funny!! Justin Bartha was great in this! But for the guys here is your Chick Flick Warning!" Magik Mama FLIXTER "Catherine Zeta-Jones is back on the big screen at last. She looks good for a 40year old. Catherine Zeta-Jones is perfect for this role." FROM THE OLD "A formula driven romantic comedy centered on a May - September romance, The Rebound is bolstered by touching moments and solid acting. Catherine Zeta–Jones reminds audiences that she is a very capable actor. Pursued by the younger Justin Bartha who portrays the slightly adrift Aram, The Rebound presents an almost believable romance punctuated by moments of charm and comedy in equal measure." SUITE 101

"The film is just 96 minutes long and there's a slight lull in between, as far as the action onscreen goes. Otherwise, this romp of a romcom goes the entire gamut, though keeping it largely real for the most part. While CZJ plays gorgeous cougar to the hilt, Bartha comes off quite sincere. It's short, it's sweet and it's real for the most part. Go for it." Bryan Durham MIDDAY "The impressive element of this Bart Freundlich written and directed film is actually Justin Bartha. Catherine Zeta-Jones is really unimpressive, she gives such a self-conscious performance with no real sense of her sensuousness as a 40 year old woman. She acts sensuousness, which isn’t the same. For the first half of the film I wondered why I should be interested in these people. But when it starts to address the real emotions involved, that’s when the film starts to be interesting." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES "This glossy Hollywood piece is not for everyone as it joins the dots and goes for the obvious, but it's good natured enough and allows those who are interested to partake in a fantasy of plastic proportions. Catherine Zeta-Jones has a sexy and appealing presence as Sandy. Justin Bartha is given more opportunity to shine as the sociology major graduate happy to follow his heart and not the ambitions attributed by his upper west side parents." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE

The Inside Story Bart Freundlich began writing "The Rebound", while completing production on his earlier film, "Trust The Man", starring David Duchovny and his wife, Julianne Moore. "Unlike a lot of the other movies I had made, this time I wanted to experiment with a more traditional sympathetic lead. It started with the name Aram Finkelstein, inspired by the writer Aram Schroyin. It's such a great New York Jewish name, I just had to name a character after him," says Freundlich. He spent a good year talking about the concept and developing Aram's character, coming up with different scenarios. "It really started out as a story about a young man whose French wife leaves him, but it soon developed into these parallel stories of Aram and Sandy, two people who have been terribly wronged and end up finding each other." Inspired by filmmakers like Woody Allen and such films as "The Graduate", Freundlich says "the film is also an affirmation of the importance of relationships in your life. No matter how damaged you are or how much you believe there’s no future, there always is, and most of the time it's about letting go and allowing that stuff to happen." He was also interested in the idea of two people in different age groups experiencing the same thing; the idea of Aram, a twenty four year old kid who’s getting divorced experiencing the same thing as Sandy, a fourty year old woman. "The age difference between them was really just a secondary story. It was more about these two damaged people trying to connect to one another and looking at that through a comedic lens." Originally the film was about a very concentrated period of time in someone’s life; that moment you fall in love, but it spanned into a longer period of time. "Even if one person is ready to take a relationship to the next step, you need both people to be in the same place to move forward," Freundlich says. "These characters go through the same pain that most people go through in relationships of needing to separate for a long time and having really let go in order to come back together. I know that's an old notion but it's something that I really believe in." As well as being funny Freundlich wanted to make a comedy that was also real. "My hope for the film when people see it that they take something very real away from it, having laughed the entire way through it." The Rebound is rooted in the history of romantic comedies but it walks that fine line between being a farcical comedy and being really human and naturalistic. Deauville Film Festival Audience Award winner Freundlich ("The Myth of Fingerprints" 1997) wanted to give audiences the familiarity they are looking for in a romantic comedy while not boring them with the same thing over and over. "You need to create the easy chair for people to sit in but do a great dance in front of them once they're sitting down." It was at least a year before Freundlich gave the screenplay to his long time producer and friend, Tim Perell, who produced three of his earlier films including "The Myth Of Fingerprints", a family drama, "World Traveller", a very intense drama and "Trust The Man", his first comedy and most recent film. "I thought for his next film he would go back and write something intensely dark and challenging so I was surprised that he wrote a comedy that was an even further departure from Trust The Man," notes Perell. "Bart is a very humorous man and the first read was extremely funny but it also had an incredibly warm human core to it. I laughed hysterically at some of those first scenes and I still laugh just as hard when I see them today," he says. When the script was ready, it was send out to financiers: The Film Department West Hollywood, California, being one of them. "The Film Department got it on a Friday and came back to us Monday morning with an offer. That said a lot to us about their level of enthusiasm and support for the film," says Perell. "Even though there were other interested parties, because they spoke so loudly to us and so quickly they really got our attention. We met with Mark Gill and really loved him. Mark, Robert (Katz) and Neil (Sacker) have been fantastic partners throughout this and we're their first big movie." The threat of the actor's strike meant that the filmmakers had to move quickly to have filming completed by June 15th. This gave them seven and a half weeks of pre-production and the even though the film didn't have any cast, this was the time to make it. "It's hard to get a movie up and running but the pressure of the strike actually helped us enormously," notes Perell. "It's also rare for a company to move as quickly as The Film Department these days but they were always able to back up their promises and we moved forward at a fast pace." The film's greenlight was contingent on the casting of Sandy, the perfect suburban mom from 'Sleepy Hollow', living in a picture perfect world until she discovers her husband's been cheating on her. Freundlich really wanted Zeta-Jones ("Chicago") to play this role and she was on the top of their list. Even though the Oscar ® winning actress describes herself as someone who can't tell a joke from start to finish, she was looking for the chance to do more comedies. "I wanted to find a comedy with a kind of zany comic feel to it and The Rebound had all the elements I was looking for," the 2001 & '03 Screen Actors Guild Award winner for "Traffic" & "Chicago" says. In particular Zeta-Jones responded to the film's story. "I think what’s endearing and universal to the piece is that divorce and break-ups don’t just happen to women and neither do the emotions that come out of them. "The Rebound" shows us these events and emotions also happen to men. I also like what the script says about relationships. When they break up everyone thinks there’s no hope in hell that you will find love again, but you can." With Zeta-Jones firmly on board the filmmakers set about casting the role of Aram Finkelstein a young Jewish boy who's parents are very much a part of his life. "We never had a clear idea of who that actor should be and we were always looking forward to finding that person," says 2007 Independent Spirit Producers Award winner, Perell ("Shortbus"). Freundlich (who directed a then thirteen year old Kristen Stewart in "Catch That Kid") and Perell ("Last Chance Harvey") had both worked with Bartha on "Trust The Man" and since then he had been campaigning for the role, after reading a very early draft of the screenplay. "Justin even phoned us at one point and asked if he could option the screenplay and pursue it on his own," says Perell. "He always had an enormous amount of passion for the role and for the script which was exciting to us." Although Bartha told Freundlich right away that he wanted the role, it would still be another few years before he was cast. Bartha (who played computer whiz Riley Poole in "National Treasure" I & II) recalls that when he heard Catherine Zeta-Jones (Mariette in TV'S "The Darling Buds of May") was cast in the film he didn't think he would get the role. "You hear that someone like Catherine's attached and immediately I thought, 'who is going to imagine me with Catherine Zeta-Jones?' But I called the producers again and pleaded with them that I was Aram and finally it all came together." With Sandy and Aram in place, the filmmakers still had to cast Sadie and Frank Jr. who play Sandy's kids. With a short lead-time, Perell found their casting, "particularly nerve-wrecking." As well as providing comedic relief the two kids become a very big part of the movie once Sandy and Aram meet. They express the things that the two of them can't say and become the bridge that connects them from that point onwards. Freundlich wanted to try to make the children real characters instead of them being just token kids. "They're both very recognizable on the surface but underneath are very specific quirky characters when you start to uncover them," he said. "Sadie can be quite morbid and a she's a little bit on her way to being a Goth and Frank Jr is a total unedited ball of saying whatever comes to his mind." During their search for Sadie and Frank Jr, the filmmakers worked with casting agent Doug Aibel ("Dead Man Walking" & "Kinsey") who Perell and Freundlich had collaborated with on their previous three movies. "We had an enormous amount of trust and faith in him," says Perell. They also hired a Los Angeles casting director and together they saw about five hundred kids on tape. They narrowed it down to about eighty or ninety kids who they met and then about twenty five who they called back. "When you're faced with 500 kids you have no idea if you're going to find the right person or not or whether you're going to get the chemistry right between them and Justin and Catherine. In the end we got extremely lucky with Kelly Gould and Andrew Cherry on every level." Initially the filmmakers had cast another young actor in the role of Frank Jr but due to a scheduling conflict he wasn't available. They had very little time to make a decision. In the end they would cast Cherry off tape. "Doug had put Andrew on tape for another film and was really overwhelmed by him. We saw his audition and could tell he was really special so we hired him there and then," says Perell. "It was terrifying but luckily he turned out to be remarkable, a real phenomenon." Although "The Rebound" is very much a two hander driven by Sandy and Aram, there's also a multitude of other characters that have to support the whole story. Director Freundlich, was incredibly triumphant to be able to bring together a remarkable group of actors in the supporting cast. It was Aibel who came up with the idea to cast Art Garfunkel ("Catch 22" & "Carnal Knowledge") in the role of Aram's father. Garfunkel admits he was nervous getting back into acting after nine years. "In the Performing Arts when you have a groove going the next show is not so difficult but when you've had a big break you're nervous." Joanna Gleeson ("Boogie Nights" & "The Wedding Planner") was cast as Garfunkel's on-screen wife, Roberta Finkelstein. "Joanna really is a comic genius and you can see this in her previous roles. I was blown away at the thought of working with her because she has some of my favorite lines of all times in Woody Allen's movies." When Gleeson read the screenplay she thought it was refreshing "to read a script where the parents are not some younger person's idea of clueless and stupid. These people are real and refreshing. Roberta is in no way a cliché irritating Jewish mother. She's more of a loving mother who is concerned about her son and not shy about expressing her concerns." When the filmmakers told Gleeson she would be working with Garfunkel she was ecstatic. "I'm a life long fan of his music and also his movies." Principal Photography commenced in New York City on April 21st and concluded on June 16th 2008 before continuing around the world for an additional twelve days of filming capturing the film's end sequence. These locations included; Hong Kong, Mumbai, Kenya, Paris and Istanbul. In New York city, most of the film was shot within three blocks of where Freundlich lives. What's The Storyline?

When beautiful, smart and dedicated suburban fourty year old mother Sandy, accidently discovers her husband has cheated on her with her friend Molly, she takes her two children and moves from her shady upmarket suburban home to New York City to start a new life. First task on the list is to find somewhere to live. She finds an apartment above a coffee shop. Here she meets Aram Finkelstein, a twenty four year old young man who was recently duped into marriage by a french woman in need of a green card. Aram, who works as a Barista in the coffee shop and seems a nice enough guy, works two jobs. The two meet again at the local Womens Centre, where dressed in an inflated fat suit, he acts as a punching bag for women to release their anger upon. When Sandy scores a job as a statistician at a Sports Network and decides to start dating, she turns to Aram as a babysitter. As Aram increasingly becomes attached to her kids, the two become aware of their own undeniable chemistry. Romance is inevitable.

The Verdict "She's the hottest fourty year old mum in Hollywood and still the same gorgeous head-turner she was, way back in the days of the TV series "The Darling Buds of May". Certainly no 'desperate housewife', the young welsh actress who played Mariette in eighteen episodes from 1991 to '93 and who was (in those days), many a every young lads poster girl, is about to set heart racing again. Catherine Zeta-Jones is about to stir the imaginations of another generation with what some are describing as a 'cougar' role in the romantic comedy, "The Rebound". For those who haven't yet heard the good news, let me bring you up to speed: turning fourty doesn't mean you've suddenly become old or unattractive. And the bad news? While you may fantasize that every mother is a M.I.L.F. or even worse, every fourty year old is a 'cougar': their not. You may wish, but that's all it is. Wishful thinking! I don't deny that somewhere in this big, wide, wonderful world, there are mature women, who like a Cougar in season, use every ounce of their cunning, to beguile a young male just to satisfy their need to mate. But don't go thinking it's a new phenomenon, because it isn't. There have always been older women who are attracted to younger men and good luck to you if you find one. In the case of "The Rebound", Zeta-Jones's character Sandy, isn't a 'cougar'. Yes, Sandy is sixteen years older than Aram Finklestein when they first meet, but they fall in love and that's the difference. Sandy isn't on the hunt for a young mate. If you are old enough to have had a few 'life experiences' there are some delightful moments in "The Rebound" you'll quickly pick-up on. For everyone else it's a quirky, sort of art-house style film with a solid cast that works pretty well. SOLID 3 1/2 STARS." The Team Behind The Film

Director Written by Producers Original Music Cinematography Casting Production Designer Art Direction Set Decoration Costume Design

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Bart Freundlich Bart Freundlich Bart Freundlich/Mark Gill Robert Katz/Tim Perell Clint Mansell Cinematography by Jonathan Freeman Douglas Aibel Ford Wheeler Doug Huszti Carolyn Cartwright Melissa Toth

Who Is Playing Who?

Catherine Zeta-Jones Justin Bartha Art Garfunkel Joanna Gleason Andrew Cherry Jake Cherry Megan Byrne Lisa Gerber Kelly Gould Eliza Callahan Liv Freundlich Daniel Burress Saidah Arrika Ekulona Kate Jennings Grant

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Sandy Aram Finklestein Harry Roberta Frank Jr Frank Jr Molly Foster Susie Sadie Sadie Liv Coffee Shop Hipster Lateefah Daphne

Run Time 94 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Roadshow Films - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.