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It's a simple concept: Cast two of Hollywood's hottest actors, Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston, put them in a zany situation -- Butler is a bounty hunter who has to arrest Aniston, his ex-wife -- and watch them squirm as they reluctantly, but eventually, fall in love all over again. It's a formula for romantic comedy gold, but The Bounty Hunter screws it up with a miscalculated story, useless subplots, and lack of anything resembling romantic chemistry between Butler and Aniston.
The movie opens with a down-on-his-luck Butler chasing a bounty in the middle of a Fourth of July parade (in what is the first of many Benny Hill-style chase sequences). Though he nabs his mark, Butler's still not happy -- the Fourth of July is a reminder of his failed marriage. That makes it the perfect weekend for him to track down his hot-shot journalist ex-wife (Aniston), who skipped out on her court date to catch a big break in her suicide-turned-homicide news story.
The plot is contrived, to be sure, but forgivable, since its main aim is to get the two leads together so we can watch the sparks fly. Unfortunately, once Butler has Aniston in hand-cuffed custody, the only sparks that fly are from a taser. Instead of letting the couple create their own sexual-tension filled problems, director Andy Tennant has them running from the drug dealers chasing Aniston, the vile bookies chasing Butler, and Aniston's annoying co-worker (Jason Sudeikis), who serves no other purpose than to annoy both the protagonists and the audience. The inconsistent story is riddled with holes and supported by the weak subplot of Butler's gambling addiction. With Butler and Aniston's relationship vying for screen time, none of the storylines get enough attention to make The Bounty Hunter fun, let alone watchable. It doesn't help that Tennant's ultra contemporary style, which offers quick cuts and zooms backed by a pop soundtrack that will likely be dated by the time it hits theaters, leaves the film feeling like a choppy mess of scenes rather than a connected story.
The story distractions might be a blessing in disguise, as the car chases and gunplay are more exciting than Butler and Aniston's onscreen relationship. When the two stars finally have a minute to catch their breath and say more than two words to each other, they talk in veiled relationship references and clichés that land with a thud. Writer Sarah Throp's dialogue makes us feel like we're overhearing a conversation between two people rather than inviting us into the lives of these characters. We only hear surface-level relationship jabs -- he's a jerk, she's a workaholic -- and have no clue why these two got together and split in the first place.
Despite all these elements working against them, Butler's charm and Aniston's class could have saved the movie, but their producer-arranged marriage has no passion or excitement. This is not the fiery Aniston from The Break-Up, and Butler's cockiness fits better when paired with 299 shirtless men. Both actors give performances on auto-pilot, and who can blame them when the director and writer are more concerned with their individual problems rather than their relationship? A romantic comedy is built from the relationship of its leads, and all The Bounty Hunter has to work with are blank stares.
