Forces of Nature 
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Director: Bronwen Hughes
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Ben Affleck, Maura Tierney, Ronny Cox, Steve Zahn
Genre: Comedy
Do you want to know why guys, in general, don't like romantic movies? Because they don't bring anything into the movie with them; they don't bring the collective unconscious idea of "romance" along with their wallet and medium Coke, and that's exactly what "relationship flicks" ask us to do. How else are you going to believe that two characters are going to fall in love over the course of an hour-and-a-half of viewing time? There's something about screen romances that seem unbelievably flaky to us guys—and probably to some women as well. Asking us to believe that two strangers are meant for each other, even with the help of a swelling soundtrack, is a tough sell for anybody who's actually had to listen to their girlfriend snore all night in a fit of snot.
So when a flick like "Forces of Nature" comes along, starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, almost every guy worth his weight in hoop shoes is going to let out a bovine groan. Yeah, yeah, two strangers end up travelling together—they're wacky misfits, they fight in the car....Gee, do you think they're going to end up kissing? By all rights this movie should suck. It should suck unmitigatingly and without reservation. It should be the most miserable experience any human with a "Y" chromosome could possibly endure. But it ain't.
Fact is, it's amazingly good. Anyone who has spent any time in Hollywood knows that being a successful movie star is almost completely arbitrary; there are thousands of beautiful people lining up for auditions, and pretty much all of them are good actors. So when someone like Ben Affleck becomes a star, the 13-year-old Mademoiselle readers swoon, but the rest of us just see a fratboy who happened to get excruciatingly lucky. Same with Sandra Bullock—this ECU grad happened to get a good script in "Speed" and has spent the rest of her career peddling crap. But "Forces of Nature" may change a mind or two, because our two leads have a palpable chemistry that seems a lot more powerful than random chance. Ben stars as "Ben" (why did they do that?), a man on the eve of marrying his longtime girlfriend down in Savannah, Ga. Problem is, he's in New York, and his flight was derailed by a bird being sucked into the engine. Also, there's a Category 2 hurricane lumbering just outside the coast of South Carolina (sound familiar?) ready to pounce on the nuptials before he can get there.
Enter Sandra Bullock, wearing the mandatory deep, dark eyeliner of tortured female heroines, who meets Ben on the star-crossed plane and manages to talk their way into rental cars, trains and strip joints on the way down to Savannah. And, yes, the previews don't lie: there's a special sequence taking place right at Pedro's own South of the Border in Dillon, S.C. For some of us, that's worth the price of admission alone, but this movie has more than that—killer dialogue, fantastic chemistry and a sense that nobody has any idea how this movie will end. I sure didn't, and I can smell a plot device like a fart in a car.
Best of all, this is one flick that is honest with its own flakiness. When Ben starts to fall in love, Bullock leans back in the convertible and says to him, with the sharpest glare possible, "we've only known each other TWO DAYS..." It is precisely this kind of suspension of belief that makes our suspension of DIS-belief possible and brings this flick to another level. Admittedly, it's a bastard brother of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" cross-pollinated with "The Sure Thing," but you'll find yourself not caring. Gorgeously shot, with rain sequences straight out of a Suerat painting, "Forces of Nature" is a chick flick that even one or two guys might be able to stand. Thank god for the occasional surprise, eh?
—Ian Williams
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