Publications
Partners
What it's about:
Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler), a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, gets his dream job when he is assigned to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurly (Jennifer Aniston). He thinks all that’s ahead is an easy payday, but when Nicole gives him the slip so she can chase a lead on a murder cover-up, Milo realises that nothing ever goes simply with him and Nicole. The exes continually one-up each other – until they find themselves on the run for their lives. They thought that their promise to love, honour and obey was tough, but staying alive is going to be a whole lot tougher.
What we thought:
Jennifer Aniston fans know that she’s one of those actresses who’s a pleasure just to watch. She may not have very many expressions, but she has the most beautiful skin in the business, especially when contrasted with Gerard Butler’s very manly roughness. That guy makes sun damage cool all over again.
Add to that passably entertaining characters – Jennifer plays an investigative reporter – and an amusing scenario in which love and hate are hard to separate, and you’ve got a recipe for sexual tension that’s only heightened by plot twists and (I won’t lie) the constant hope that you’ll actually get to see Jen and Gerard naked.
Although their off-screen romance was faked – a shameless publicity stunt – their on-screen romance is surprisingly believable.
Most of the humour derives from the horrible things the divorced couple do to each other, or from the embarrassment their relationship causes them and those around them. Their mutual inability to be well-behaved members of society makes them more likeable than most plastic Hollywood lovers tend to be.
But after all that, this movie is nothing special, and misses the opportunity to take a gritty, quirky approach to the storytelling. It’s not a bad accompaniment to an artery-hardening box of popcorn, but you’ll get more of a thrill from the average episode of a good HBO TV series, and waste less time in the process.
