The Rebound

Thanks in equal part to Woody Allen and ‘Sex in the City’, New York’s Upper East Side is defined as a place where smart ladies talk dirty over lunch, ageing Jewish couples force kids into high-paying jobs when all they want is to create, and every coffee shop is staffed by hipsters and their wisecracking best buddies. It’s perhaps impressive that ‘The Rebound’ is so unafraid to embrace cliché, but there are limits.

Catherine Zeta Jones plays Sandy, the divorced mother of two adorable tots, who finds herself falling for a 24-year-old barista (Justin Bartha). He’s smart, charming and great with the kids, but is he too young? ‘The Rebound’ has its share of witty repartee and romantic insight, but it’s lacking in originality or conflict: the romantic trials of two wealthy, good-looking people, whose only barriers to happiness are their own petty insecurities, become tedious, and it’s not helped by some stilted dialogue and awkward, mannered performances.