Forces of Nature
USA 1999
Reviewed by Philip Kemp
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
New York. Ben and Bridget are about to fly to her home in Savannah, Georgia, for their wedding. But at Ben's stag party his grandfather suffers a heart attack. Bridget goes on ahead; Ben, taking a later plane, is seated next to Sarah, an attractive, eccentric young woman. The plane skids off the runway; all flights are cancelled. Despite Ben's misgivings, he and Sarah beg a lift from a stranger named Vic who has secured a hire car.
On the road, Vic's pot smoking gets them run in by the local police. Released, Ben and Sarah catch a train, but wind up in the wrong section and have to get off. While they wait for a bus in the nearest town their money is stolen. Pretending she and Ben are newly-weds, Sarah cons them a lift with a busload of senior citizens, but they're unmasked when Alan (Ben's best man) and Debbie (Bridget's maid of honour) show up at the same hotel on their way to the wedding. Sarah coerces Ben into a striptease in a gay bar. It nets them enough cash to reach Savannah where a hurricane is brewing. Sarah is confronted by her husband, who accuses her of neglecting her son by her first marriage. Ben reaches the fast-disintegrating wedding, fends off both sets of parents and assures Bridget of his love. She accepts it and they fly off to get married in Hawaii. Sarah seeks out her son and reforges their bond.
Review
"A lot of stuff's happening really fast," says Sarah, the would-be life-force heroine of Forces of Nature, "and you're not registering it." Unfortunately, she's wrong on both counts. By this stage of the film nothing is happening nearly fast enough, and what is happening registers all too clearly, with a series of dull, laborious thuds. Forces of Nature sets out to be a latterday screwball comedy, mixing in elements of It Happened One Night (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Something Wild, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, and half-a-dozen other movies in which a nice, square citizen heading for a nice, square marriage is shaken out of his/her complacency by a wild, wacky character with no regard for convention. It's a serviceable if overused plotline, but if it's to work it needs two vital ingredients, both sadly lacking here: mutual chemistry and pace.
Things start promisingly enough. The opening stag-party sequence, where Ben's grandfather succumbs to a heart attack brought on by the ministrations of a stripper, sets up the right mood of black comedy, though already danger signals sound in the way the film backs off from having the old boy die. The plane crash is well-handled too, and there are some diverting cameos along the way, with various characters sounding off on the pros and cons of wedlock. Especially amusing are the beaming elderly couple, seemingly long and happily married, who confide they're having an extramarital affair and enjoying the first good sex of their lives.
However, as the pace of the film bogs down, the string of disasters dogging the couple come across as increasingly mechanical and contrived. If Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck had a good onscreen thing going, they might carry it, but there's no electricity between them. Bullock in particular seems over-conscious of all her predecessors from Katharine Hepburn onwards, her kookiness unfocused and pasted on, while Affleck just looks stolid. A would-be zany episode in an all-night K-Mart falls woefully flat. And the besetting timidity doesn't help. Ben's gay-bar striptease scene lacks all sense of danger or even raunchiness, stopping far short of the full monty. The over-flagged hurricane does little more than whisk a few leaves around in slow motion, and neither Ben and Sarah, nor Ben's fiancée Bridget and her importunate ex-boyfriend Steve, are allowed to get much further beyond a brief snog while horizontal.
This lack of consummation turns out to be deliberate, setting things up for the 'surprise' denouement in which Ben doesn't make the choice we've been led on to expect. But this peripeteia, evidently intended as heart warming, just feels like one more anti-climax - all the more so since it leads to a flaccid ending, with Ben's sententious voiceover reducing Sarah to a Reader's Digest-style Most Unforgettable Person I Ever Met. While he drones on, we see Sarah winning over her son, making up for ten years of absence with a lot of grinning and a $2 inflatable toy. One suspects such a victory would have needed a good deal more work, but then that goes for the whole film.
Credits
- Producers
- Susan Arnold
- Donna Arkoff Roth
- Ian Bryce
- Screenplay
- Marc Lawrence
- Director of Photography
- Elliot Davis
- Editor
- Craig Wood
- Production Designer
- Lester Cohen
- Music
- John Powell
- ©DreamWorks LLC
- Production Companies
- DreamWorks Pictures presents a Roth/Arnold production
- Associate Producers
- Steven P. Saeta
- Ricki Spector
- Production Controller
- Jim Turner
- Production Office Co-ordinator
- Lois Walker
- Production Manager
- Steven P. Saeta
- Location Manager
- Michael Leon
- Post-production
- Executive:
- Martin Cohen
- Supervisor:
- Erica Frauman
- Co-ordinator:
- Sven E.M. Fahlgren
- 2nd Unit Director
- Alexander Witt
- Assistant Directors
- K.C. Hodenfield
- Lisa Satriano
- Rebecca A. Stefan
- 2nd Unit:
- Michael H. Anderson
- Script Supervisor
- Cate Hardman
- Casting
- June Lowry Johnson
- Associate:
- Libby Goldstein
- ADR Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Alexander Witt
- Camera Operators
- Chris Squires
- Chris Lombardi
- 2nd Unit:
- Ken Fisher
- Steadicam Operator
- Chris Squires
- Digital Visual Effects/Animation
- Pacific Data Images
- Visual Effects Supervisors:
- Richard Chuang
- Henry LaBounta
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Les Hunter
- Sequence Supervisors:
- Adam Chin
- Peter Plevritis
- Adam Valdez
- Larry Weiss
- Digital Artists/Animators:
- David Blizard
- Chanda Cummings
- Michael Day
- Konrad Dunton
- Mark Edwards
- Rachel Falk
- Jonah Hall
- Thane Hawkins
- Kristi Hewitt
- Mel Kangleon
- Ken Keys
- Ed Lazor
- Alberto Menache
- Bertrand Ong
- Stephan Osterburg
- Sean Pollack
- Marc Dominic Rienzo
- Federico Rivia
- Krzysztof Rostek
- James Rowell
- Chris Trimble
- Erik Winquist
- Matte Painter:
- Alan Sonneman
- Production Co-ordinator:
- Jason Heapy
- Editorial Co-ordinator:
- Brice Parker
- Art Director:
- John Bell
- Plate Supervisor:
- Mike Cooper
- Additional Digital Artists:
- Jean Cunningham
- Philippe Denis
- Foo Sing-Choong
- David House
- Stephanie Katritos
- Barbara Meyers
- Thomas Pushpathadam
- Nathania Vishnevsky
- Film Room Supervisor:
- David St. Clair
- Lead Technician:
- John Hanashiro
- Software Engineering:
- Rahul Thakkar
- Shawn Neely
- Production Manager:
- Cordy Rierson
- Executive Producers:
- Brad Lewis
- George Merkert
- Special Effects
- Supervisor:
- John Frazier
- On-set Co-ordinator:
- Jim Schwalm
- Technicians:
- Steven Eugene Bunyea
- Ralph Kerr
- Jack Davis
- Ken Ebert
- Jim Jolley
- Martin Montoya
- Joe Pancake
- Francis Pennington
- Computer Graphics
- Lillian Byrne-Heyward
- Art Director
- Christa Munro
- Set Designer
- Jack Ballance
- Set Decorators
- Leslie Morales
- Additional:
- Chuck Potter
- Set Consultant
- Jonathan Short
- Draftsperson
- Glenn Rivers
- Costume Designer
- Donna Zakowska
- Wardrobe Supervisors
- Amy Andrews
- Ginnie Patton
- Make-up Artist
- Cindy Jane Williams
- Hairstylist
- Candace Neal
- Main Titles Design
- Imaginary Forces
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Music Conductor/Additional Arrangements
- Gavin Greenaway
- Orchestrations
- Bruce Fowler
- Yvonne S. Moriarty
- Music Supervision Services
- Mary Ramos
- Michelle Kuznetsky
- Tri Tone Music
- Executive in Charge of Music
- Todd Homme
- Music Editor
- Katherine Quittner
- Music Recorder/Mixer
- Alan Meyerson
- Creative Music Consultant
- Robbie Robertson
- Soundtrack
- "Take California" by Alex Gifford, performed by Propellerheads; "La Virgen de la Macarena" by Antonio Ortiz Calero, Bernardo Bautista Monterde, performed by Banda El Toreo; "A Rose by Any Other Name" by Holly Palmer, David Barratt, Kenny White, performed by Holly Palmer; "City of Groove" by DJ Icey, Christian Ledford, performed by DJ Icey; "Battle Flag (Lo-fidelity Allstars Remix)" by Steve Fisk, Shawn Smith, performed by Pigeonhed; "Whippin' Piccadilly" by Ian Ball, Paul Blackburn, Thomas Gray, Jo Attewell, Oliver Peacock, performed by Gomez; "Remember Me" by Robert Miller, Richard Evans, Marlena Shaw, Lex Blackmore, performed by Blue Boy featuring the voice of Marlena Shaw; "Rollin' & Tumblin' (Remix)" by R.L. Burnside, Tom Rothrock, performed by R.L. Burnside; "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" by Phil Collins, performed by David Strickland; "Song for Jeannie" by/performed by Michael Hartman; "Bring My Family Back", "If Lovin' You Is Wrong" by Max Fraser, Rollo Armstrong, Ayalah Bentorim, performed by Faithless; "Pharaoh" arranged by Mrs Sidney Carter, Alan Lomax, performed by Mrs Sidney Carter; "Magic Bus" by Pete Townshend, performed by Swervedriver; "Pio Mentiroso" by Miguel Ojeda, performed by Afro-Cuban Allstars; "Would You...? (Trailermen Go to Rio Mix)" by David Lowe, performed by Touch and Go; "Do Your Duty" by Wesley Wilson, performed by Sandra Bullock; "Love the One You're with" by Stephen Stills, performed by (1) Stephen Stills, (2) Chris Tart; "Siboney" by Ernesto Lecuona, perfomed by Ruben González; "El Cumbanchero" by Rafael Hernández, performed by Ruben González; "Melodia del Rio" by/performed by Ruben González; "You Gotta Have Heart" by Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, performed by Peggy Lee; "Descarga de Hoy" by Orlando Valle, performed by ¡Cubanismo!; "Breathing Bongos", "Slave Girl", "Walking Bongos" by Kirby Allan, performed by Chaino; "I Need a Lover" by/performed by Finley Quaye; "Get Your Hands off My Man" by/performed by Junior Vasquez; "Slowly" by/performed by Tricky, vocals by Carmen Ejogo; "Fear" by/performed by Sarah McLachlan; "Everlasting Love" by Buzz Cason, Mac Gayden, performed by U2
- Choreography
- Adam Shankman
- Sound Design
- Randy Thom
- Production Sound Mixer
- Geoffrey Patterson
- Engineer
- Dennis St. Amand
- Digital Nonlinear Engineers
- Alex Drought
- Steven P. Moder
- Re-recording Mixers
- Andy Nelson
- Anna Behlmer
- Re-recordists
- Robert Renga
- Craig 'Pup' Heath
- Tim Gomillion
- Supervising Sound Editor
- David Hankins
- Dialogue Editors
- David Beadle
- Larry Goeb
- Lukas Bower
- Sonya Henry
- Russ Dewolf
- Effects Editors
- Bruce Tanis
- Mike Babcock
- Frank Smathers
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Joe Dorn
- Recordist:
- Rick Canelli
- Mixer:
- Thomas J. O'Connell
- Editor:
- Howell Gibbens
- Foley
- Supervisor:
- Bob Newlan
- Artists:
- Alicia Stevenson
- Dawn Fintor
- Recordist:
- Carrie Cashman
- Mixer:
- Dave Betancourt
- Editors:
- Mark Cookson
- Dave Grecu
- Andrew Kopetzky
- Aerial Co-ordinator
- 2nd Unit:
- Randy Peters
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Cal Johnson
- Cast
- Sandra Bullock
- Sarah
- Ben Affleck
- Ben
- Maura Tierney
- Bridget
- Steve Zahn
- Alan
- Blythe Danner
- Virginia
- Ronny Cox
- Hadley
- Michael Fairman
- Richard
- Janet Carroll
- Barbara
- Richard Schiff
- Joe
- David Strickland
- Steve
- Meredith Scott Lynn
- Debbie
- George D. Wallace
- Max
- Steve Hytner
- Jack
- John Doe
- Carl
- Jack Kehler
- Vic
- Anne Haney
- Emma
- Bert Remsen
- Ned
- Julie Ivey
- Beth
- Maia Lien
- Sandy
- Carter Reedy
- Rafiki Smith
- Franklin H.D. Ecker
- groomsmen
- Taylor Gilbert
- Doctor Keller
- Francisco De Ramirez
- bus driver
- Pat Crawford Brown
- Florence
- Bill Erwin
- Murray
- William Marquez
- Herman
- Antone Calandra
- Tommy Chappelle
- James Chirbas
- Bill Coates
- Vivian Edwards-Ashford
- Damon Frost
- Jean Gates
- Joan Glover
- Winnie Hammer
- Bob King
- Leon Lamar
- Judith Maltenfort
- Eddie Miller
- Mali Miller
- Danny Nelson
- Joanne Pankow
- Ginnie Randall
- Beverly Shelton
- George Stoba
- Jacki Wilson
- sunseekers
- Michael Cudlitz
- bartender
- Athena Bitzis
- Juanita the bull tamer
- Libby Whitemore
- car rental agent
- Dan Albright
- Officer McDonnell
- Marshall Rosenblum
- ticket vendor
- Mike Pniewski
- conductor
- Wes Kennemore
- thief
- Brandon McLaughlin
- delivery man
- Marc McPherson
- hotel manager
- Justin Michael Benassi
- Sarah's son
- Shelly Desai
- cabbie
- Cordell Nichols
- child on train
- Dan Biggers
- justice of the peace
- Lester Cohen
- port authority spokesman
- Natalie Hendrix
- airport reporter
- Scott Pierce
- news anchor
- Shannon Welles
- lady in wheelchair
- Certificate
- tbc
- Distributor
- United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound/SDDS
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor
- Anamorphic [Panavision]