Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
4/3/08
It's
funny what an accent will do: check your local theater listings and
see where the British comedy Run Fatboy Run is playing. Yeah,
it's probably snuck into a multiplex or two, but if you've got a multi-screen
art house in your area, I bet it's there. And if your multiplex has
an area set aside for “Select” films, It's probably one of them.
But it really does a disservice to this fun, rousing comedy to consider
it an art flick because all but one of its' characters is English.
In fact, the feature directorial debut of Friends star David Schwimmer
is pretty much the opposite of one: it does a fine job of running
a well-established underdog formula, offers very few surprises, and is
pitched precisely at the ticket-buying Regular Joe. Pity if they
missed out on it because it comes labeled with that scary “A” word.
Five
years ago, Dennis (Simon Pegg) made a bad decision. A really, really,
colossally awful decision to leave Love of His Life Libby (Thandie Newton)
at the alter while she was carrying their child. Everything he's
done since has followed the course he charted that day and he's now got
a crummy apartment, a crummy job, and he's not much of a father to Jake
(Matthew Fenton), the one thing that keeps him connected to Libby.
Enter the new man in her life, a rich American named Whit (Hank Azaria)
who's moving fast to make everything Dennis has lost his own. Whit
makes a show of trying to be friends and grown-ups, but the bonding rituals
he arranges are really just chances to make the competition look bad.
In that awkward time together, one part of Whit's perfect life catches
Dennis' eye: in three weeks, the American will be competing in the
Nike River Run, a charity marathon, and Dennis announces his plans to join
him. The problem is, since making good time running away from his
future, he has grown, depending upon who you ask, “unhealthy” or just plain
fat. Can his best friend (Dylan Moran) and landlord (Harish Patel)
possibly whip this chain smoker into shape in time? And even if they
can, how can a man who's “never finished anything” dig deep enough to run
twenty-six miles?
Simon
Pegg first came to the attention of moviegoers as one of “The Guys Who
Brought You Shaun of the Dead”, but he's a lot more than just some
limey goofball: he's a Real Deal movie star, and it's on his talented
shoulders that Run Fatboy Run rests. Even though Dennis is
a die hard screw-up, there's never any doubt that Libby would be happier
with him than the vile, selfish Whit. All he needs is a chance to
turn things around. The story offers this in spades, with a marathon
finale that's hugely sentimental and extremely satisfying. It's not
easy to pull off one of those sequences where everyone in town is glued
to their TVs watching the movie play out, but here the device works exceedingly
well. Only one knock on Dennis, and that's that I can't remember
the last time a movie character was so unconvincingly styled to be “overweight”
simply by putting some padding under his shirt. Looking at Pegg's
perfectly trim arms, legs, face and neck makes one wonder exactly where
the movie's title comes from.
He
has a sensational nemesis in Azaria, whose acting skills are often hidden
behind his fame as part of the Simpsons vocal ensemble. I've
grown tired of romantic comedies that don't have the guts to make the 3rd
party in their central triangle someone to root against: that's the
whole point! Whit starts out as the kind of “nice guy” we might sympathize
with, but bit by bit he shows his true colors. Azaria delights in
lording his advantages over Dennis, climaxing in some really good stuff
between the rivals when the race kicks off. I've never been smitten
with Newton the way many in the press are, but she does a good job as a
woman torn between knowing who the guy for her is and the simple fact that
he's a total loser who committed an unpardonable offense against her.
Moran and Patal make fun sidekicks.
Most
importantly, the movie is quite funny. Pegg's slapstick skills are
formidable, and he makes Dennis' physical struggles a constant hoot.
The movie isn't afraid to go to a strategic gross-out when necessary, and
when our hero develops the Worst Blister Ever on his foot, the horror of
popping it is a show-stopper. Schwimmer's years in TV comedy have
given him a good sense of how to weave jokes into the fabric of a story
that doesn't have to get down on its' hands and knees and beg for laughs.
Agreeably
silly and shamelessly sentimental, Run Fatboy Run hits all the notes
a sports-flavored romantic comedy should. Just don't expect Art:
you should know by now that the English can be just as manipulative and
low-brow as the residents of their former Colonies. After all, wouldn't
a whole country that produced nothing but Quality Cinema go nuts? |
