Nine years after their smash PRETTY WOMAN, director Garry Marshall reunited his stars, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, in RUNAWAY BRIDE, a watchable 1999 romantic comedy which is more than anything, a reunion of the PRETTY WOMAN stars (including Marshall good luck charm Hector Elizondo) in a featherweight comedy that borrows liberally from more than half a dozen superior romantic comedies that I can think of, including PRETTY WOMAN. Roberts plays Maggie, a small town free spirit who has a reputation for planning large elaborate weddings and leaving the groom at the altar at the very last second. When Masggie gets engaged for the fourth time, word of her story reaches a big city newspaper writer (Gere) who decides to come to Maggie's intimate little hamlet to cover the wedding and well, you can guess the rest. The on screen charisma between Gere and Roberts is still there, but this time they have a rather limp screenplay to work with that doesn't really play to their strengths as farceurs. In addition to Elizondo, Joan Cusack does steal every scene she is in as Maggie's best friend and there are also effective turns from Paul Dooley as Maggie's dad and Christopher Meloni as fiancée #4. It's passable comic fare, but if you're looking for another PRETTY WOMAN, you will be disappointed.]
Review of Runaway Bride
