RUNAWAY BRIDE -- Garry Marshall, dir

©1999
studio: Paramount
production company: Interscope Communications, Lakeshore Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Touchstone Pictures
dir: Gary Marshall
cast: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Joan Cusak, Hector Elizondo, Rita Wilson, Paul Dooley
screenplay: Josann McGibbon & Sara Parriott

A New York columnist writes about a woman in a rural town who has left four men standing at the altar. When the woman challenges what he wrote, he decides to follow her for a follow-up report and winds up as groom number five.

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This is a feel-good movie that has nothing really offensive about it ... other than a lack of believability. My ten year old daughter really enjoyed it, and that's fine -- a good age for this movie.

The on-screen chemistry between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere was quite nice, but certain aspects of the movie really failed to ring true.

First, while they tried to set up that Gere wasa struggling for something to write about, I don't believe for a second that he'd be stupid enough to use real names of people in a column .

I never, not even for a second, found a moment where either of them fell in love with the other. In fact, after Gere returned to his New York home, I was immediately struck by the thought that she knew absolutely nothing about him -- his New York apartment was so completely different than anything we had seen in her life. It made total sense that she didn't run off with him right away. I'm not sure why she ultimately went back to him.

A decent, romantic comedy, but one must use a certain amount of faith to accept what is happening on screen.