As cold and calculating as the heart of a Hollywood accountant, The Bounty Hunter is the caper comedy that keeps on taking. I've already given it nearly two irretrievable hours, and here I am again, facing the sucking void of the contemporary mainstream romantic comedy and trying to hold onto my pocket change and what's left of my dignity. If the trailer for this Jennifer Aniston/Gerald Butler PR vehicle didn't crush your spirit, the full feature will certainly take care of that, although there's not much more to know: Aniston has a great body (she's 41 you know!), Butler wants to be a big star, and the two of them probably boned in real life.
Appearances must be kept up, however, and to that end we have director Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama) and screenwriter Sarah Thorp to throw a lot of brittle plot scaffolding around the big draws. Aniston plays Nicole, a New York Daily News reporter whose career ambitions naturally ended her marriage to Milo (Butler), a former NYPD detective and current bounty hunter. When a missed court date for a vague police assault charge puts an arrest warrant over her head, Milo is only too thrilled to oblige. Nicole is stubbornly chasing down a story that is almost completely incomprehensible, but has something to do with a suspicious suicide and stolen evidence inside the NYPD. Added to her sloppy intrigues is Milo's bookie problem, which means that he is being pursued as doggedly as he pursues his gumshoeing ex. As you can imagine this makes for many hilarious misunderstandings.
The history of the couple's relationship is literally phoned in, over several cutaway scenes, by Christine Baranski, who plays Nicole's mom, an Atlantic City diva with a night club act. "You married him because he drove you crazy and divorced him for the same reason," she says. And if that's not compact enough for you, a little later she tells Milo, "Nicky may be a strong, independent woman on the outside, but on the inside she's just a girl, looking to be loved by her man." At this I searched Baranski's Cheshire features, rather desperately, for even the barest hint of irony. Reader, I was denied.
It would have been easier to relax and enjoy the prickly vibe between the exes, once Milo finally gets Nicole into his custody, if it didn't veer so consistently into the alarmingly vicious. Replacing smarts and charm with cheap shots and cruelty seems to be the mainstream comedy mandate, and there's plenty of it here, with Butler's paternalistic pleasure in degrading and holding Aniston -- who is barely dressed and propped up on stilettos the whole time -- captive bordering on the unpleasantly sadistic. Is it funny to point a gun at a woman in public and then throw her over your shoulder while no one looks twice? Or to taser a naked man in the neck? Butler's natural charisma and manic energy is in theory a good fit for Aniston's level-headed slow burns and uncanny timing, but their crudely sketched characters and the crassness of the material overwhelms what chemistry they have.
Shot on location in New York and Atlantic City, The Bounty Hunter has a flat, depressing look and a schmaltzy soundtrack that swells to almost drown out what few big ticket sappy moments the couple share. No opportunity is lost to dip into Aniston's bronzered rack, and should the cameraman's attentions inexplicably wander elsewhere, the script has ensured that at least one mention of it is made in every other scene, just to keep things on track. As a friend of mine remarked about a couture gown recently worn by Ms. Charlize Theron: "We get it, you have tits." I think I read somewhere that you act sometimes, as well?