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Movie Review: Run, Fat Boy, Run
by Bill Wine
An overweight and out-of-shape security guard, who ran out on his fiancιe five years ago, tries to win her back by training for and entering a marathon race in London.
RATING: PG-13
GENRE: Romantic comedy
RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2008
RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes
VIOLENCE FACTOR: No violence except for one comical fistfight
BAD WORDS: Considerable, yet good-natured cursing occurs throughout
RACY? There is some partial, casual male nudity to comic effect
GRANDS:
CRITIQUE:
Run, Fat Boy, Run is directed by David Schwimmer. Which leads an appreciative viewer to advise: Direct, Friends Boy, direct. Schwimmer's debut behind the camera is a romantic comedy with not only plenty of heart, but plenty of hearty laughs.
Run, Fat Boy, Run tells the tale of Dennis (Simon Pegg), an out-of-shape security guard in London who still pines for the woman he loves (Thandie Newton), whom he left at the altar five years ago, when she was his pregnant fiancée.
Now they share parenting duties for their young son, while she pursues a serious romance with a non-loser (Hank Azaria), a healthy, wealthy financial executive.
Desperate to run toward instead of away from something, and wanting to demonstrate that he has matured and can now finish anything he starts, he enters the London charity marathon in which her byfriend plans to run. His seemingly unattainable goal is to finish the race and thus win her away from her current beau.
Good luck with that.
Schwimmer (Ross Geller on TV's Friends) directs from a screenplay co-written by Pegg, who transplanted the plot from New York City to London and plays lovable loser Dennis with natural hangdog charm and a penchant for slapstick. Schwimmer doesn't try to reinvent the comedy wheel, instead employing his sure-handed comic timing to the nuanced delivery of witty dialogue and the numerous smartly set-up sight gags.
Oh, there are complaints to be registered: Not enough romantic chemistry between Pegg and Newton; far too much blatant product placement; and a softening of comic edge in the final reels. But where it ultimately counts for any comedy — in the Did It Make Me Laugh? department — Schwimmer's first foray behind the camera succeeds schwimmingly.
GP Rating System:
Three Grands = Bravo, don't miss it.
Two Grands = Good enough, don't dismiss it.
One Grand = Okay, even if we dis it.
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