Runaway Bride (1999, PG)

Directed by Gary Marshall

Written by Sara Parriott, Josann McGibben, and Audrey Wells

Starring Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Joan Cusack, Christopher Meloni, and Hector Elizando

As Reviewed by James Brundage (MovieKritic2000)

The saying "they don't make them like they used to" should be revised for movies. In movies, they make them exactly like they used to. Thinking back on the romantic comedies I have seen, all of them have the same basic formula. Their characters are pulled out of some antiquated storeroom reserved for the genre, and then put to use in a simplistic script. The lines change. The specifics of the plot change. Everything else remains the same.

I am not going to say that Runaway Bride is a complete rip of Pretty Woman. I am not saying that the reunion is a remake in disguise. What I will say is that Runaway Bride is exactly what you should expect from a romantic comedy in the summer: a simple plot, a simple script, and two big names to guarantee box office revenues.

Runaway Bride is not as terribly cliché as The Wedding Singer, which had no originality whatsoever, but it is cliché to the point that the originality only comes in a few good jokes littered here and there and some nice lines. The plot is simple: unhappy single columnist for USA TODAY Ike Graham (Gere) hears about a woman that likes to leave her grooms on the alter named Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts). He writes a highly antagonistic column about her and then is fired when an angry letter to the editor contains a list of inaccuracies that the column contained. Not to be completely deterred, Fisher, a freelance photographer doing work for GQ, puts out the offer that if he gets an accurate scoop on Maggie, then GQ will take the article.

So, driving a car that no journalist could afford, he heads off to Hale, a town so stereotypically small town that it would urge bile from most New Yorkers. It has a barbershop quartet, a Main street, an Elm street, etc. Of course, as he gets to know the real Maggie, Ike begins falling in love with her.

There are the standard hurdles in the on screen relationship: the initial hatred of the man, the close-call to breakup caused by the woman at the end, and the fact that the woman is already in a relationship with someone who is obviously a jerk. All of these hurdles are jumped over with Olympic class skill by veterans of movie relationships (and mutual victims of real life divorce) Richard Gere and Julia Roberts… both adept competitors at the romantic comedy 50 yard dash.

At the end, everything turns out fine and dandy. We are even forced to sit through credits showing a series of happy couples (including the former boyfriend of Maggie, who has found true love in a New York tomboy).

As bitter a diatribe as I myself could go on about how the movies are always this way, Runaway Bride manages to pull off the same old con that we have seen a million times before with enough panache that we don't mind being deprived of our money. In fact, as with most horribly cliché movies (see Deep Blue Sea), we will willingly part ways with our money and come out of the theatre smiling.

Seeing as this is a reunion of the bunch that gave us Pretty Woman hundreds of trite romantic comedies ago, we might as well respect the sanctity of older people who can still cut it (even if they barely scrape by) and submit to seeing this film. Enjoy.