Runaway Bride (B+ or 3/4 stars)
9 years after smash hit Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts, Richard Gere & director Garry Marshall team-up again for romantic-comedy, 'Runaway Bride'. Roberts plays Maggie Carpenter, a hardware store owner in picturesque Hale, Maryland ... who has left not one, not two, but three(!) husbands-to-be at the altar. Premarital jitters, you ask? Whatever the case, she bolts like a colt each time. When cynical USA Today columnist Ike Graham (Richard Gere) hears this story, he uses Maggie as the main figure in a caustic commentary on women as "man-eaters". Maggie gets wind of the article, protests wild inaccuracies in his story and, in a flash, Ike is fired by his boss/ex-wife (Rita Wilson) for not fact-checking his sources.
Livid & seeking some vindication, Ike accepts an assignment to write a deeper profile of Maggie. And so, Ike travels from NYC to the small, quaint town where she lives, intending to tell the 'real' story set against the backdrop of her upcoming marriage/4th attempt to Bob (Christopher Meloni), a doltish gym teacher & ardent mountain climber who incessantly speaks in sports metaphors. Townsfolk & family alike have opinions about Maggie's inability to commit -- her fleeing from church has become a joke within the community -- and they are all willing to talk to Ike about it, including her alcoholic father, Walter (Paul Dooley), her plucky grandmother (Jean Schertler), town gossip/baker, Betty Trout (Laurie Metcalf), her best friend, Peggy (indispensable Joan Cusack), and the men she stood up on their wedding day. At 1st, Ike & Maggie butt heads, as he hopes she'll bolt again to groom #4 so that he'll get a good story. But before long - and as these movie plots go - emotions stir, chemistry clicks and, Ike actually hopes her wedding plans fall through so he can be fiancee #5.
The cynical side of me knows that this film isn't particularly good {i.e., romance is built on contrivances}, and yet, for whatever reason, 'Runaway Bride' enchanted me from beginning to end. When people say, "They don't make 'em like this anymore" ... this is that kind of movie. In fact, it reminded me of those classic 1930s/40s screwball rom-coms that people went in droves to see {and in fact, this film is one of the biggest moneymakers of 1999}. Roberts & Gere ignite real screen magic together, once again. Gere displays some nice low-key comic talent and is as disarming as ever. And Julia Roberts just has IT. We've known this since the late 1980s, but her smile, shining personality & je ne sais quoi filmic appeal is still at its peak.
From the arresting opening scene of our runaway bride on a galloping horse, her bridal gown billowing behind her, to the heart-warming finale, director Garry Marshall draws out all the magic moments he can muster in this (mostly) satisfying love story. Hale, Maryland is a wonderful character in & of itself -- I wanna live there! Despite the oddball plotline, cooky characters, slipshod script dialogues & faerie tale notions that all problems can be easily resolved & happy endings ensue, I enjoyed watching this, greatly. Not that this movie is looking to go deep, but I also liked that 'Runaway Bride' speaks to the fear-driven person inside all of us who is always looking towards finding themselves ... but not to find themselves in someone else.
Livid & seeking some vindication, Ike accepts an assignment to write a deeper profile of Maggie. And so, Ike travels from NYC to the small, quaint town where she lives, intending to tell the 'real' story set against the backdrop of her upcoming marriage/4th attempt to Bob (Christopher Meloni), a doltish gym teacher & ardent mountain climber who incessantly speaks in sports metaphors. Townsfolk & family alike have opinions about Maggie's inability to commit -- her fleeing from church has become a joke within the community -- and they are all willing to talk to Ike about it, including her alcoholic father, Walter (Paul Dooley), her plucky grandmother (Jean Schertler), town gossip/baker, Betty Trout (Laurie Metcalf), her best friend, Peggy (indispensable Joan Cusack), and the men she stood up on their wedding day. At 1st, Ike & Maggie butt heads, as he hopes she'll bolt again to groom #4 so that he'll get a good story. But before long - and as these movie plots go - emotions stir, chemistry clicks and, Ike actually hopes her wedding plans fall through so he can be fiancee #5.
The cynical side of me knows that this film isn't particularly good {i.e., romance is built on contrivances}, and yet, for whatever reason, 'Runaway Bride' enchanted me from beginning to end. When people say, "They don't make 'em like this anymore" ... this is that kind of movie. In fact, it reminded me of those classic 1930s/40s screwball rom-coms that people went in droves to see {and in fact, this film is one of the biggest moneymakers of 1999}. Roberts & Gere ignite real screen magic together, once again. Gere displays some nice low-key comic talent and is as disarming as ever. And Julia Roberts just has IT. We've known this since the late 1980s, but her smile, shining personality & je ne sais quoi filmic appeal is still at its peak.
From the arresting opening scene of our runaway bride on a galloping horse, her bridal gown billowing behind her, to the heart-warming finale, director Garry Marshall draws out all the magic moments he can muster in this (mostly) satisfying love story. Hale, Maryland is a wonderful character in & of itself -- I wanna live there! Despite the oddball plotline, cooky characters, slipshod script dialogues & faerie tale notions that all problems can be easily resolved & happy endings ensue, I enjoyed watching this, greatly. Not that this movie is looking to go deep, but I also liked that 'Runaway Bride' speaks to the fear-driven person inside all of us who is always looking towards finding themselves ... but not to find themselves in someone else.