‘Runaway Bride’
would have been
k\ better as drama
By Samuel McKewon
Editor
If “Runaway Bride” is a signal of
\ anything, it’s probably this:
Juba Roberts has hit the
end of the road in terms of
romantic comedies.
If you like Roberts, in
general, you’ll like her
newest movie. It’s largely
a retread oi rreny
Woman,” and not just
because it co-stars
Richard Gere and
Garry Marshall
again directs.
Even her hair is
the same in
“Runaway Bride.”
In a way, this
story about Maggie
Carpenter (Roberts), a woman
who consistently gets cold feet on
wedding day, has a certain
charm. And it’s likely that a
reporter like Ike Graham
^ (Gere) could exploit her situ
I ation. But as it moves into its
I second hour, I got the feeling
I’d appreciate the
movie a whole lot
more had it been
} a drama than the
loopy comedy it
L is.
Because
“Runaway Bride”
has a greater share
of pathos in it than
it does black humor.
There’s nothing par
ticularly funny about
Maggie, for instance, a
basically decent woman who
doesn’t know what she wants and
flirts with her best friend s husband.
There’s nothing funny about her fall
down drunk dad (Paul Dooley). And
there’s nothing funny about Ike getting
fired for writing a false column, some
thing every citizen (and every reporter)
fears.
But a comedy this movie must be,
and it suffers because of it After Ike
hears of Maggie, tucked away in tiny
Hale, Md., slashes her in his column
and gets the boot, he treks off to way
too-small town to get the real story,
and, you know, fall in love with Julia all
over again.
Maggie has a fourth groom-to-be
(we see how she ran out on the previous
three through a nice video collage), is a
football coach who tells her to ‘f>e the
ball.” Ike sees through that, though it
takes an arduous 90 minutes to finally
get there, and another 30 minutes for
whole tiling to wind up.
There’s a usual small town cast of
characters: the best friend (Joan
Cusack), the hokey shop owner (Laurie
Metcalf) the wise Grandma (Jean
Schertler). “Runaway Bride” even
decides to recycle that old shopping
scene from “Pretty Woman” in a differ
ent way.
What sinks a movie like this isn’t
lack of chemistry. Gere and Roberts
have enough. No, in truth, neither are
particularly funny individuals, especial
ly Gere, who plays the ham. His act
gets as old as he’s starting to look.
Roberts has usual array of funny faces
and witty repartee, but lacks a cohesive
character; Roberts seems as unsure on
how to play Maggie as Maggie is on
weddings.
As long as it is, it wouldn’t have
been a nightmare had the movie
eschewed all the humor and went
straight dramatic. Gere’s better suited
anyway.
For Roberts, after the success of
“Notting Hill,” her romantic comedy
career comes to an end for awhile.
She’s back next in a Terrance Malick
movie “The Moviegoer” and then two
self-exploration films in “Alice From
to Ocean” and “Erin Bradovich.” That’s
good. Roberts, at 31, needs to move on
now; hell one of these days she’ll play
a character who has a child of her own.
The Facts
Title: "Runaway Bride*
Stars: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere
Director: Garry Marshall
Rating: PG-13
Grade: C a
Five Words: Julia needs to move on
