Forces of Nature

On the way to his wedding in Savannah, a bridegroom (Ben Affleck) falls in with a free-spirited woman (Sandra Bullock), who tweaks his hormones; meanwhile, his fiancee (Maura Tierney), waiting at home, parries the advances of a former beau. Marc Lawrence’s script is top-heavy with plot contrivances, and director Bronwen Hughes indulges a penchant for artsy TV-commercial camera work (slow-mo hailstorms, sunsets, stuff like that). Both would have been wiser to concentrate on making the characters more credible and developing stronger relationships among them. Bullock seems a bit too level-headed for a screwball, and the affable Affleck has no real chemistry with her or Tierney. We don’t really care which one he winds up with, and the ending manages to be surprising and anticlimactic at the same time.