Emily Dickinson once said, “The heart wants what it wants – or else it does not care.”  Typically, the quote most often cited focuses on everything before the em dash, but the whole sentence connects to Faith.  It underscores the need for letting God into your heart.  By doing so, you can worry less about where you might be led, or a lack of caring.  Of course, things will never be perfect this side of the grave, which is why we have movies like The Rebound (2009).  At its core, it is about an older woman being in love with a younger man.  There is nothing wrong with such a situation, in theory.  As the film makes clear, it is society that has the problems with the age gap.  Rather, there are other strange choices in the plot that make this one a head scratcher.  It is not bad, but there are many moments while watching it that will make you wonder whether it was made by beings from outer space.

On Earth, in a New York City suburb, The Rebound introduces us to Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  She is by all appearances a dedicated wife and mother.  Indeed, after dropping her children off at school, she comes home to look at footage from a recent birthday celebration.  One of the clips features her doing karaoke.  However, it is what she notices on the side of the screen that catches her attention.  Almost out-of-shot is Frank (Sam Robards), Sandy’s wife, and he is doing inappropriate things with another woman.  Without any further thought, Sandy divorces Frank and moves to the city with the children.  As they are settling into the area, they meet Aram (Justin Bartha).  He works at a coffee shop, but above this business are a number of apartments she is interested in renting.  His friend tries to encourage him to charm the newcomer, but Aram is still hung-up on Alice (Stéphanie Szostak), his ex-wife.  As we later learn, he had married young, but then she ran away with somebody posing as her brother.  Though they are separated, they technically remain together so that she can gain legal status in the United States.  He is that generous.  As for Sandy, she is still having trouble getting over Frank.  Also, adjusting to some of the bizarre sights and sounds of the Big Apple is proving challenging.  As such, she enrolls in an urban self-defense course at the local woman’s shelter.  Technically, Aram works there as well, and he provides the punch dummy for all the demonstrations.  At the end of the instruction, she is called upon to show the rest an extremely aggressive way of dealing with would-be attackers.  Channeling all her hurt, she lands a number of hard blows on him that hurt despite the padding he is wearing.  She feels bad for the treatment, asking for forgiveness.  She is also in need of a babysitter, being forced to go on a date with a guy set up for her.  While Aram has a great time with the kids, Sandy’s night out is less entertaining.  It gets gross, in a scatological sort of way, and she ends it before it gets too late. Upon getting home, she is too tipsy to pay him, and ends up sleeping in late the following morning.  In fact, so out of it is she that the children come down to the coffee shop to get him to wake her up.  She is embarrassed, but at work she gets good news.  What had impressed her new employers, a sports network, was the meticulousness of her work.  This comes to the attention of Laura (Lynn Whitfield), one of Sandy’s bosses, who asks the busy mom if she is interested in helping write stories.  It is a promotion for Sandy, but it means extra work and longer hours.  As such, she realizes she needs assistance with the young ones, and she turns to Aram.  Over the objections of his parents, who think he is wasting his life being a nanny, Aram accepts.  This frees Sandy to focus more on work, but also gives her some time to go out on other dates.  However, what becomes apparent during this time is that she is constantly wondering how he is doing, which is thinly veiled as wanting to check on the children.  One night, having extra tickets to a boxing match, they decide to go together with the little ones with their father for the weekend.  It turns into a date, and his standing up to Frank when he arrives cements her feelings for Aram.  Of course, there are the inevitable questions that come with what I guess is a fifteen-year age gap between them.  They do their best to act naturally, though there are still awkward moments, like when he takes her to meet his parents.  What helps is his wise-beyond-his-years attitude, which impresses her co-workers and wins their approval.  Indeed, everything is going well until she suspects that she is pregnant.  When she reveals the news, he is shocked, at first, but quickly recovers to receiving the development with joy.  This goes a long way towards easing her concerns, and they visit the doctor together.  Yet, what they think is a pregnancy turns out to be ectopic.  Listen, the movie used the technical term for when an inseminated embryo attaches outside the uterus, so I am relaying it to you.  Sadly, it means there will be no baby.  They are both devastated, and it brings up for her how much at odds they are with each other.  While telling him how perfect he is, she also writes him off as needing to live the rest of his life.  In response, he goes on to travel the world for the next five years, while she continues to matriculate through her career.  Upon ascending to head anchor, Laura takes Sandy and her children out for a celebration.  It so happens that Aram and his parents are at the same establishment.  Once they run into each other, it is evident that they are still in love.  Thus, they decide to join table and we end with them holding hands.

As might be evident from my introduction to this review of The Rebound, there were a few moments where I was holding my own hands, as in wringing them, over some of the things depicted on screen.  While Aram has a good outlook on his divorce, Sandy is far too celebratory.  Granted, there is much of my Catholic background seeping into this outlook, but divorce is never a good outcome for a relationship no matter the circumstances.  I get the defiance in the face of being wronged that has her saying that the loss of her marriage is the best thing to ever happen to her.  What is troubling is that there does not seem to be any attempt at reconciliation.  She is perhaps the more vulnerable of the two, but Frank does suggest at one point that they put aside their differences and she come home.  At the same time, he does not put it in the most loving of tones, suggesting that he is not sincere.  Nonetheless, this is not the main part of the story.  Instead, it is about how far apart Aram and Sandy are in age.  As such, I am not sure why it is titled as it is, but that is a separate argument.  As for the age difference, the Church has no distinct teaching on these matters, nor should it be an issue in general.  God does not judge us on the basis of how many times we have circled the sun.  How old we are is a human invention designed to order society along arbitrary lines that have nothing to do with Faith.  When it comes to relationships, we tend to think that the older one is the more mature they are, and that we should match maturity levels.  There is some wisdom in this thought.  Obviously, children should not be romantically involved with adults.  However, among people of legal age, it is what is in the heart that is important.  If you rely on God to inform you on such things, you will never go wrong with any number.  The film does not take Faith into consideration, but their hearts are in the right place in the end.

I suppose that the best thing you can say about The Rebound is that all is well that ends well.  I do not recommend it because of the strange path it takes to get to that point.  After all, there is a scene where one of the kids casually walks in on Aram and Sandy having sex.  That is not appropriate, and while it is the most salacious of scenes, the blandness of the rest makes for a less than satisfying film.