It would have been a lot more fun, for this review anyway, if Runaway Bride had been either a great movie or a horrible one. After all, the movie's name is perfect for all sorts of wordplay, such as this movie is a runaway success or, if it had been bad, don�t walk, runaway from this movie. Instead, Runaway Bride is simply a very pleasant movie. Fun, but nothing exceptional. The producers were hoping to recreate the success of Pretty Woman by reuniting the principals from that film, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts and Hector Elizondo, but reuniting actors from a successful movie does not always mean you�ll strike gold twice. Reuniting Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting after Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid worked, not just because Paul Newman and Robert Redford have a chemistry together, but because everything else in The Sting, plot, supporting cast, soundtrack, etc., worked as well. Conversely reuniting Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy after 48 Hours for Another 48 Hours didn�t work because nothing, including their chemistry together, clicked.For that matter, I didn�t find the chemistry between Richard Geer and Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride to be that great. They worked well together, but they've worked equally well in other movies with other actors or actresses. Hector Elizondo did a great job, he always does, but he wasn�t given as interesting a part to play with as he had in Pretty Woman. The other supporting characters weren�t bad; they did go a bit overboard in aiming for small town quirky, but not enough to undermine the movie. A couple of plot threads were left dangling and the part about the runaway bride's father being a alcoholic was not handled well and should have either been better dealt with or left out completely. On the flip side the use of the egg question as a way to define Julia Roberts�s character, or lack thereof, was very inventive.
Generally the end product was a romantic comedy that, being neither too good or too bad, will be memorable only as a footnote to Pretty Woman stating that the primary�s from that film were reunited for this one. It would make an excellent first date movie, but other then that I'm afraid Runaway Bride will always be a bridesmaid and never a bride. See I knew there had to be a play on words in the title after all! ;-)
Average Grade: C+
