Romantic Comedies. How long have they been around? I am sure since the dawn of cinema romance has been played out way too many times on film. So many people complain they are unoriginal, that the formula is tired and lame. My question to those people is this, why the heck do you go see this type of movie in the first place? In Forces of Nature's case was it because Sandra Bullock looked damn hot in the preview or Ben Affleck looked like he was actually going to stretch his acting range? Why? I really do hate when people rag on this genre of film because honestly its dependable, you know what your gonna get, its comfort food for the soul. I have seen my fair share of bad romantic comedies, but let me tell you Forces of Nature is one that has its head in a creative fast lane. Not only is it great to look at, with slow motion sequences and imaginative special effects, but also the story is one that I didn't expect. The story is present to show you the cold feet of Ben (Ben Affleck) and a woman, Sarah (Sandra Bullock), who makes him understand it. There trip from the airport, takes them through all kinds of over the top weather, but it is all part of a metaphoric journey of understanding love and marriage. I admit some of the movie does dabble in some less than stellar scenes involving Ben's Fiancée Bridget (Maura Tierney) and her ex-boyfriend Steve (the late David Strickland), but it doesn't bring the overall story down. While its true that the audience doesn't quite understand the relationship between engaged love birds Ben and Bridget, that is hardly something you can complain about since its not the point of the movie, the story is about Ben's journey and his ice cold feet. I enjoyed the movie for what it was instead of trying to imagine that it could be this uncliched masterpiece, because I find most romantic comedies are derivative to certain point anyway. The title sequence by Kyle Cooper (the director of New Port South) does a brilliant job with colour and substance, which perfectly matches with the rest of the film. Cinematographer Elliot Davis, wow, does an amazing job here with coloured lenses. Forces of Nature is a great film, full of rain, thunder and sunshine, which is exactly how love can feel at times.
Review of Forces of Nature
