runaway bride - review at Movies on Dowse.com

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DOWSE movie guide review of Runaway Bride

Runaway Bride
Director: Garry Marshall
112 minutes (PG) 1999
widescreen 2.35:1
Buena Vista rental
also available to buy on DVD
review by Gary Couzens

Ike Graham (Richard Gere), a New York columnist, writes about Maggie Carpenter (Roberts), a young woman he has never met, who has jilted three husbands at the altar. She replies and causes him to lose his job. So Ike sets out to Maryland to find out the truth.
You can sense the cogs whirring inside the studio executives' heads when they thought of this - reunite the stars and director of Pretty Woman and repeat its success. And as Julia Roberts in a romantic comedy is catnip to the international box office, it and 1999's other Roberts-starring romantic comedy (Notting Hill) both did very well. 1990's Pretty Woman worked on a fairytale level (despite presenting prostitution as a glamorous career opportunity). Runaway Bride just demonstrates that the vital spark can't be bought. It's all down to the script, with a central mystery that isn't very compelling and inconsistent characterisation. Gere and Roberts certainly clicked in their previous screen outing but they don't here, mainly because the script gives them a reason to. It's always good to see Joan Cusack, but as too often she's underused. Runaway Bride simply doesn't have enough plot to sustain two hours, and after a while it becomes a trial to sit through.

Gary Couzens

originally published in VideoVista #15 (June 2000)

DOWSE Guide to the Movies is compiled by Tony Lee editor of Pigasus Press
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