RUNAWAY BRIDE: Blu-ray (Paramount/Touchstone, 1999) Paramount Home Video

What can one say about a ‘quaint’ and understated romantic comedy like Runaway Bride (1999) – a movie that hails from another epoch entirely, and, in fact, was misperceived in its day as a shameless attempt by director, Garry Marshall to rekindle that magical spark between co-stars, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere? Indeed, Roberts and Gere were wonderfully genuine, together for the first time in Marshall’s Pretty Woman (1990). Marshall once glibly described his appeal as a director, as just a guy interested in two people having a conversation, minus car chases, sex scenes, and action moments riddled in special effects. Marshall died in 2016, and boy…could we certainly use his ilk of picture-maker now, distinctly as a counterpoint to all the CGI-laden gunk and gigantism being peddled as ‘art’ on our cinema screens today. Ditto for a Julia Roberts – an actress with that intangible quality of ‘wanting to be loved’. Roberts positively radiates from beyond the screen, reaching to the back row, but more importantly still, into our hearts, where she never fails to find a home. It’s disheartening to think of a movie landscape without Julia Roberts. For although she has remained ‘active’, with two projects simultaneously on the go for this coming year, the high-profile celebrity status to have once accompanied the now 53-year-old actress seems a thing of the past, or, more directly, never to be repeated. Roberts real golden period was from 1988 to 1999 – a decade’s worth of playing to that preprocessed image as ‘America’s sweetheart’ at precisely a wrinkle in time when America – and the world at large - desperately needed one.

It isn't an overstatement to suggest Garry Marshall made Julia Roberts’ career. He also had a very big hand in resuscitating the faltering trajectory of co-star Richard Gere. For although Roberts made her big screen debut in Donald Petrie’s Mystic Pizza (1988), and was considered viable box office to play in the all-star ensemble tear-jerker, Steel Magnolias (1989), it was for her role as Vivian, the savvy streetwalker in Marshall’s Pretty Woman that Roberts suddenly came into her own – those flaming shocks of reddish brown hair, crinkled and teased, those far-casting doe-eyed orbs, oozing wounded empathy from behind her externalized ‘hard knocks’ bravado, with a garage-door-sized smile stretching to infinity, and, to melt our hearts like the proverbial pat of butter left far too long to cure in the sun, Roberts instantly became a household name, and justifiably so. She is what Hollywood used to call ‘a personality’ – a genuine presence on the screen, impossible to fake, and, once seen, even less likely to ever dismiss. The Hollywood of today lacks ‘personality’. As for Richard Gere – his career, begun on high notes, An American Gigolo (1980) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) was practically in the toilet by 1991, thanks to a string of unprepossessing films. Prior to Pretty Woman, Gere basically made one picture a year - each, threatening to put a period to his actor’s aspirations. In retrospect, Gere is pretty much the antithesis of Roberts’ star presence. For although he could – and did - mostly skate by on his ‘pretty boy’ looks, he seemingly lacks the ballast to go beyond this eye candy, and thus, in possession of precisely the quality to make him such an admirable accompaniment alongside a Julia Roberts or a Debra Winger (his costar, in the aforementioned Officer/Gentleman) - namely, as the unremarkable ‘guy on the side’ – studly, and satisfying in the shadow of these divas.

In Runaway Bride, Garry Marshall is working overtime to rekindle the scintillating on-screen chemistry between Roberts and Richard Gere that was so palpable in Pretty Woman. Marshall is only partially successful herein, more the fault of Josann McGibbons, Audrey Wells and Sara Pariott's rather clumsily assembled series of vignettes that make up this picture’s plot, clasped together with pop tune infused montages that stumble around for something clever to say. Runaway Bride only comes together in fits and sparks. But when all else fails, there is the chemistry between Roberts and Gere. This clicks as it should, tinged with a sexy glint of antagonism as his jaded reporter, Ike Graham, increasingly becomes romantically frustrated by the fact he has fallen in love with the supposed target of his poisoned pen, marriage-shy hardware sales clerk, Maggie Carpenter. Rather affectionately, Marshall has also found a part for the marvelously glib and tragically underused, Hector Elizondo who, nevertheless, gets the absolute best one-line zinger in the movie. As Roberts’ scattershot fiancée escapes the altar by leaping into the back of a moving FedEx delivery truck, wedding date, Ellie Graham (Rita Wilson) breathlessly inquiries, “Where is she going?” to which Elizondo’s world-weary editor, Fisher, replies, “I don’t know. But she’ll be there by 10:30 tomorrow!”  

The New York-born, Elizondo, begun as a scouted basketball all-star, conga player, classical guitarist and singer, then, weightlifting coach and, of all things, owner of a bodybuilding gym, and, ballet dancer quickly established his niche on Broadway. The leap to television was not quite so assured, and, in hindsight, neither was Elizondo’s frequent appearances in the movies, usually cast as the tertiary ‘good guy’ in support of the leads. He fills this role particularly well, especially memorable as Barney Thompson, manager of the Beverly Wilshire in Pretty Woman. And again, as Fisher in Runaway Bride, Elizondo, while never given the opportunity to truly shine, nevertheless manages to distinguish himself, merely by appearing in the background. I have no doubt that were his like to have been around in the early 1940’s, he would have become one of Warner Bros. most beloved stock company, alongside such luminaries as S.Z. Sakall, Claude Rains, and, Sidney Greenstreet. The other ‘notable’ in the cast is Christopher Meloni, playing slightly against type, as Maggie’s hilariously ‘butch’ boyfriend, coach Bob Kelly. Meloni ought to have been considered Grade-A beefcake for the Hollywood actioner long ago, what with his perpetual square-jawed scowl, piercing blue eyes and overtly masculine stance that just ‘is’ a part of his persona. He made good use of these assets and others, as the sociopath, Chris Keller in TV’s Oz (1997) before crossing over to the other side of ‘the law’ – as a reoccurring detective, Elliot Stabler on TV’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).

Runaway Bride’s plot is rather one-dimensional, but otherwise serviceable. Small-town hardware store clerk, Maggie Carpenter, having made a career out of getting ‘cold feet’ at the altar, to ditch multiple prospective fiancées moments before the penultimate vows, and in a rather ingenious assortment of ‘escape routes’, has caught the eye of newshound, Ike Graham after her latest shenanigans were caught on video tape.  Maggie is a ‘serial’ bride, or so it would seem, and is presently engaged to prospect #4, high school football coach, Bob Kelly who knows all about her track record, yet is determined to be ‘the one’ who breaks her streak by applying his sports principles and philosophies to cure her commitment phobia before their big day. Alas, Ike lends Maggie the sort of national exposure she could otherwise have done without. Tagged as an amusing figure of fun, Maggie is disgusted that Ike would take advantage of her insecurities to grab some cheap publicity for his paper. She threatens to sue for libel – a move that gets Ike suspended from his job. Ike's editor, Fisher encourages him to prove Maggie is a 'serial monogamist' by covering the demise of her latest pending marriage to Bob. If the truth will out, it will also absolve the paper of any slanderous insinuations.

So, Ike dogs Maggie until her wedding day – convinced she will never make it to the altar. He follows her to work, attends her engagement luau and generally goads her into giving him a reason for her first three failed attempts at matrimony. Maggie, however, cannot really justify her actions. At this juncture, and rather predictably, Maggie and Ike begin to fall in love – a romance that is flawed, flubbed and full of the sort of pre-marital angst and private self-pity to accompany love on the fly. Breaking off with Bob, Maggie declares her love for Ike and the two set an immediate date to be wed. Regrettably, Maggie is running true to form. On their big day, she bolts from the church, hopping a FedEx truck out of town. Disillusioned, Ike retreats to the big city. Having exposed Maggie, Ike gets his old job back, but nothing is the same. Then, one night an unexpected delivery arrives on his front step – Maggie, repentant, apologetic and having figured everything out for herself once and for all. It's not fear of commitment that has kept her single, rather, a deep-seeded social anxiety over the tradition of having a big wedding. What?!?!

The finale to Runaway Bride is neither grand nor satisfying, as a marital montage, played under the Dixie Chick’s rendition of ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ illustrates Maggie and Ike finally having made it to the altar, leaving Fisher and Ellie blissfully elated. This ending is weak, even upon first viewing. But it positively falls apart upon repeated performance, even as the inevitable ‘happily ever after’ – a real tack-on, merely, and un-originally designed to wrap things up. Indeed, the McGibbons/Wells/Pariott parable, relying on the time-honored cliché about what one good man (or rather, one cynically prone and just as jaded about love) can do for an insecure gal’s morale, is about as prepossessing as watching fresh cow dung cure in the hot sun. And yet, Gere and Roberts manage to make something ‘almost’ wonderful from this untidy little pile. If only Runaway Bride were not interminably featherweight without much in the way of a genuine ‘feel good’. The adversarial chemistry Roberts and Gere exorcise here is a bit of a drain at the outset. But once Gere’s jaded journalist begins to unravel the secret of Maggie’s terminal apprehensiveness, there is something quite genuine and pleasing about his desire to get nearer to the truth of how to ease her into that little band of gold. The reunion of Gere, Roberts and Elizondo (all alumni of Pretty Woman) perhaps set the bar for audience's expectations a tad too high. And indeed, at the outset, Garry Marshall perceived Runaway Bride as something of a sequel to Pretty Woman – a notion, Roberts absolutely resisted until the original premise was considerably reworked to make Runaway Bride its own standalone feature.

There are a number of ‘in-jokes’ in the picture that go virtually unnoticed, including supporting player, Joan Cusack’s character, Peggy Fleming, sporting a Racine ‘Peaches’ baseball cap, in reference to Penny Marshall’s infinitely more memorable, A League of Their Own (1992) – Penny, of course, being Garry’s sister, and, to have costarred in Marshall’s first runaway hit, TV’s Laverne and Shirley (1976-83).  Also, the hair salon where Peggy works is called ‘Curl Up and Dye’ – the same name as salons depicted in two other movies: Earth Girls Are Easy and Married to the Mob (both made and released in1988). It is unknown whether Marshall and his writers were aware of this, or again, are playing a hidden joke on the audience to test their acuity for film trivia. One might also comment on the rather cruel parallel between Julia Roberts’ love life – then – and her fictional alter ego; Roberts, no stranger to failed marriages and fumbled engagements, dating Steel Magnolia’s costar, Dylan McDermott, before trading up for Flatliner’s (1990) Kiefer Sutherland, whom she then ditched, reportedly because of his alcoholism, just days before their 1991 wedding, taking up with close pal, Jason Patric, whom she then left for frizzy-haired country-singer, Lyle Lovett (her first husband), and finally, the reported ‘love of her life’ – hubby, cinematographer, Danny Moder, to whom Roberts has been wed since 2002. If nothing else, Runaway Bride is a fashion parade for the various nuptial confections of designer, Albert Wolsky – save the one worn by Roberts as she and Gere ride a pair of stallions into the sunset at movie’s end. That gown was actually hand-picked by Wolsky off the rack at Saks Fifth Avenue. In yet another case of ‘something borrowed…’, the quote Ike uses to elevate the stature of his profession in Maggie’s eyes, about ‘journalism’ being ‘literature in a hurry’ is mistakenly attributed to Brit-poet/critic, Mathew Arnold. The same quote has also been referenced to stateman, Lord Moreley. Actually, it sprang from the creative aegis of Magistrate, Sir Francis Jeune.

Of the 6 films co-produced by Paramount and Touchstone Pictures, Runaway Bride is, by far, the most PG-friendly and underwhelmingly disposable entertainment of the lot, in hindsight, Garry Marshall’s shameless attempt to recapture the box office bonanza of director, P.J. Hogan’s My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997 – and, the penultimate Julia Roberts’ feel good). For a while, it seemed as though every summer had to have at least one Julia Roberts’ programmer in which wedding bells pealed madly and Roberts was either cast as the long-suffering bridesmaid or hopeful, tear-stained bride – a trend, begun with her debut in Mystic Pizza. Interestingly, Roberts would also star in Notting Hill in 1999, deemed the ‘superior rom/com of the season, but also, oddly, to put a period to this cycle. While Roberts would occasionally appear in ensemble fluff, her days as the hopeful ingenue effectively ended in 1999 with several more demanding roles, including her Oscar-winning turn in Erin Brockovich (2000) already on the horizon. Paramount’s Blu-ray of Runaway Bride, like the movie itself, is a middling effort, anamorphic, but sourced from a print rather than an original camera negative, with baked in dirt, scratches, and, film grain looking harsh and completely unacceptable. Colors are, on the whole vibrant, though flesh tones lean to orange. Contrast is solid with very deep blacks and relatively clean whites. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital. Extras include a ‘making of’ featurette and commentary track and Dixie Chick’s music video.  Bottom line: Runaway Bride is one of those so-so rom/coms from the late 90’s that nevertheless sticks around like a memory – good, bad or indifferent, but just enough to make us want to revisit its ‘fated to be mated’ characters from time to time.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

2