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"'Bride'
Cute, but not 'Pretty'"
by Scott Mantz
"Runaway Bride"
Julia Roberts, Richard Gere
Directed by Garry Marshall
There's an old,
ancient Hollywood proverb: "If at first you succeed, try again and
again". That's pretty obvious when you look at the ridiculous number
of sequels released every year, but sometimes re-teaming actors
and directors in a different story works just as well. Its been
a whopping 9 years since Julia Roberts and Richard Gere worked with
Director Garry Marshall. That collaboration resulted in one of 1990's
biggest success stories--"Pretty Woman".
For years, Roberts
and Gere had discussed doing another film with Marshall, and here
it is. Predictable, and with a screenplay so full of holes it would
make a groundhog jealous, "Runaway Bride" is a sweet, but ultimately
inferior, follow-up to "Woman".
Fortunately,
the movie gets by with its charm. Roberts and Gere have never looked
better, and the chemistry between them is still strong. Roberts
makes a double play for the summer of '99, coming off the success
of that other charming film, "Notting Hill".
Ike Graham (Richard
Gere) is a cocky newspaper reporter writing a story about small-town
Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts)--a woman who has a dirty habit
of literally leaving men at the altar. He travels to her hometown
to get the full story, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to
figure out what happens next.
One of the reasons
why "Pretty Woman" worked so well was because of its fairy tale-like
appeal (if you can call glorification of prostitution a fairy tale).
Given that approach, it was easy to overlook elements that you might
not believe. In "Bride", you know Ike and Maggie will end up together,
and the fun should be in seeing how its going to happen.
Unfortunately,
the script cuts too many corners to move things along, and most
of the characters don't follow any motivation. How Ike could be
accepted by the community to which the scorned Maggie belongs is
beyond me. Maggie's groom-to-be (Christopher Meloni) is nothing
more than an irritating distraction (think Bill Pullman in "Sleepless
in Seattle"), and we cannot buy why she is with him in the first
place.
We never truly
find enough about Maggie to understand her behavior, and it should
take a lot more than a stranger from the big city to point it out
to her. Also, other than her physical beauty and her perky behavior,
Maggie doesn't have too many redeeming qualities. She shows little
remorse about her previous marriage attempts, and she flirts with
her best friend's husband. When, and how, Maggie finally comes to
her senses about Ike is never made clear.
Romantic comedies
may be formulaic, but this potion is missing too many key ingredients.
Despite this, Roberts and Gere have enough appeal to pull the movie
off, and star power alone will ensure that "Bride" runs away with
the box office.
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