Milo the Bounty Hunter is assigned to bring in his ex-wife Nicole, a journalist who has skipped her bail hearing on a hit and run case with a New York City Police horse.
The plot relies upon Nicole’s ( played by Jennifer Aniston) dedication to pursuing this mysterious story that has been pushed under the rug by the New York police. Her investagation brings her to Atlantic City, where Milo (played by Gerard Butler) finds her “soaking up some luck” at the race-track.
Their reunion is one of the comedic high points, and reveals that this newly divorced couple is still holding onto some feelings for each other. They use a majority of the remainder of the movie to hide those feelings by dishing out a fair amount of mild insults to each other.
The film’s weakest point is the dialogue that falls quite flat in entertaining the audience. The screen writer, Sarah Thorp failed to create a storyline that brings drama, romance, and the laughs to the audience in this romantic comedy. Lines like,
“It’s powerful, it’s dangerous, it’s hard. That would be my gun.”
“If it’s your birthday, Milo thinks the best present is the gift of nothing.”
“I’m pretty sure the only guy around here that wants to kill you is me”
are painfully predictable, and fails to deepen the audience connection to the characters and their situation. When you evaluate the situation of a newly divorced couple, it is expected that they become annoyed by each other’s mere presence, so the purpose of playing to the obvious for the audience is pointless and boring.
The plotline leaves plenty of unanswered questions about Milo and Nicole.Specifically, the audience leaves the theatre wondering about the circumstances surrounding their divorce. The on-screen spats that they share seem seriously minor, and hardly any cause for ending a relationship with a man that she obviously still cares for.
Milo’s antics that he employs to get her “back” seems to be a larger reason for eliminating their relationship, which ranges from handcuffed her to the car door all the way to locking her in the trunk right after they reunite. He’s far from the sappy romantic that these films are known for, which does add a nice touch of realism to the movie. He’s a man who is hurt from the failed relationship, and allows that to show through his quest to bring in his ex. Milo’s character does become more developed than Nicole’s, and that brings the audience to connect closer to Milo.
This film was disappointing in theatre. The two big name stars, (Aniston & Butler) were expected to help bring in the big bucks for the film, but on opening weekend it came in an average third. The plotline was sweet, and it may have been more successful as a straight to DVD release, which fans of the stars would rent or even purchase the movie simply because they were in it. As a DVD release, it would be a nice date night movie, but irregardless of how it is released, The Bounty Hunter is nothing the romantic-comedy following has seen before.
