A May-December affair

MANILA, Philippines - In the romantic comedy The Rebound, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha portray two people, Sandy and Aram, who have been terribly wronged and end up finding each other. Trouble is, she’s 40 and he’s 24.

After discovering that her husband is cheating on her, Sandy moves to New York with her son and daughter. There, she meets Aram Finkelstein, young and newly-divorced after finding out that his French wife only married him for a green card. Both going through rough times and trying to start anew, Sandy and Aram become friends in no time. To keep up with her new job, Sandy even trusts Aram to baby sit her kids. Aram charms them, and pretty soon all four of them appear like one happy family. The attraction between Sandy and Aram blossoms even deeper. But meeting resistance from their friends, can they prove that what they have is something that can last forever?

Director Bart Freundlich began writing this screenplay while completing production on his earlier film, Trust the Man. Inspired Woody Allen and such films as The Graduate, he says the film “is an affirmation of the importance of relationships in your life. No matter how damaged you are or how much you believe there’s no future, there always is, and most of the time it’s letting go and allowing that stuff to happen.”

When offered the role, Zeta-Jones was just too happy to oblige. “I wanted to find a comedy with a kind of zany comic feel to it and The Rebound had all the elements I was looking for,” she says. “I think what’s endearing and universal to the piece is that divorce and break-ups don’t just happen to women and neither do the emotions that come out of them. The Rebound shows us these events and emotions also happen to men. I also like what the script says about relationships. When they break up everyone thinks there’s no hope in hell that you will find love again, but you can.”

Bartha, who has worked with director Freundlich and producer  Tim Perell in Trust the Man, shares how much he wanted to play the role of Aram. “I think Bart is an immensely talented writer. I read the script and thought it was one of the best screenplays I had read. It has so much heart and it’s truly funny, very much like Bart himself. I connected with Aram wholeheartedly from his background to his family, to the way he reacted to things and the way his relationships played out.”  Freundlich and Perell, after exploring other actors, finally agreed that Bartha was really the perfect choice. “He always had an enormous amount of passion for the role and for the script which was exciting to us,” remarks Perell. Bartha adds that when he heard Zeta-Jones was cast in the film he didn’t think he would get the role. “You hear that someone like Catherine’s attached and immediately I thought, ‘Who is going to imagine me with Catherine Zeta-Jones?’ But I called the producers again and pleaded with them that I was Aram and finally it all came together.”

A film that is full of laughs, moviegoers are expected to enjoy one particular big comedic scene. It is where Sandy is in a self-defense class and works herself up into a final fury and falls on top of Aram who’s inside a ridiculous Sumo suit.

Zeta-Jones also refers to this scene as one of her favorites. “I got to punch this person who’s in a fat suit and every emotion, everything Sandy wanted to say to her ex-husband comes out. I was really punching the hell out of that fat suit, which is actually Aram inside, unbeknownst to me at the time. I did it many times and I could have done it more and more and more. It was therapy, not just for my character, but I think for me as well,” she laughs.

Treat yourself to a witty and fresh tale of a May-December affair on Jan. 8 when The Rebound hits theaters. It is Viva International Pictures’ first salvo for 2010.