Runaway Bride (1999)

A reporter is assigned to write a story about a woman who has left a string of fiances at the altar.

Director:

Garry Marshall

Writers:

Josann McGibbon, Sara Parriott

Stars:

Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Joan Cusack

6 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julia Roberts	...	Maggie Carpenter
Richard Gere	...	Ike Graham
Joan Cusack	...	Peggy Flemming
Hector Elizondo	...	Fisher
Rita Wilson	...	Ellie Graham
Paul Dooley	...	Walter Carpenter
Christopher Meloni	...	Coach Bob Kelly
Donal Logue	...	Priest Brian Norris
Reg Rogers	...	George 'Bug Guy' Swilling
Yul Vazquez	...	Dead Head Gill Chavez
Jane Morris	...	Mrs. Pressman
Lisa Roberts Gillan	...	Elaine from Manhattan
Kathleen Marshall	...	Cousin Cindy
Jean Schertler	...	Grandma
Tom Hines	...	Cory Flemming

Storyline

Ike Graham has his own by-lined column in USA Today, which he usually uses as a forum to rail against the opposite sex. For his latest column which he writes at the last minute as usual, he, based on some information from a stranger in a bar about a woman he knows of back home, includes the story of still single Hale, Maryland residing Maggie Carpenter, who is known as the "Runaway Bride" since she has been engaged multiple times, but always leaves her betrothed standing at the altar. Because an incensed Maggie complains to the newspaper for factual inaccuracies in her story, Ike is fired, but he realizes that the story still has some life in it and thus decides to go to Hale to do further investigation. He finds that Maggie is again engaged, now for the fourth time, this time to high school football coach and adventurist Bob Kelly, who is confident enough in himself to know he will be different than the previous three grooms. When Maggie finds out that her arch enemy Ike is in town, ...

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Plot Keywords:

bar | bride | maryland | columnist | coach | 

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Taglines:

Catch her if you can.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for language and some suggestive dialogue

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Noiva em Fuga

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,649,984 (UK) (8 October 1999)

Gross:

$152,149,590 (USA) (7 January 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Interscope Communications

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Richard S. Wright:  appears behind Ike and Maggie in the stands at the ball game, holding a large cup of Pepsi.

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Goofs

Maggie presents Ike with a gift of the 'Miles Davis' album "Kind of Blue." The closeup shot is that of the original 1950's album cover. The camera cuts to a shot of the two of them in the doorway, and the album cover has changed to the "Columbia Jazz Masters" reissue cover from much later.

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Quotes

Maggie Carpenter: Do you think I flirt with Cory?
Peggy: Good morning to you, too. You look good.
Maggie Carpenter: Thank you. Do you think I flirt with Cory?
Peggy: Yes.
Maggie Carpenter: I don't mean it.
Peggy: I know. I think sometimes you just sort of spaz-out with random excess flirtation energy and it just lands on anything male that moves.
Maggie Carpenter: On anything male that moves? As opposed to anything male that doesn't move?
Peggy: Like certain kinds of coral.

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Crazy Credits

After all of the credits have run, Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are seen throwing snowballs.

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Connections

References Ink (1996)

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Soundtracks

"Aura Lee"
By Joseph Williams Andrews (as Joe Andrews), William Todd Crosby, Eugene Walker Jackson Jr. (as Gene Jackson), and Robert Lee Jones (as Bob Jones)

User Reviews

c-a-b-d

I found "Pretty Woman" charming, and I suppose I still do, but in one respect its storyline is contrived. (In ONE respect? I hear you ask. Well, maybe more than one, but only one that worries me.) This much of the standard formula a light love story MUST follow: (a) boy falls in love with girl, (b) girl falls in love with boy, (c) obstacle, (d) union. Timing is surprisingly unimportant. It doesn't matter when (c) is established - it can be before the curtain rises, or half an hour before it falls - nor does it matter if (a) and (b) are simultaneous, or over an hour apart. (And obviously it doesn't matter which one comes first. Even the order c-b-d-a is acceptable.) The trouble with "Pretty Woman" is (c). So she's a prostitute. So what? It's a pity that twentieth-century writers have somehow acquired the idea that external obstacles are less interesting than internal ones: it isn't true, and in any event, internal obstacles are harder to draw convincingly.

Which is why (FINALLY, I get to the point) "Runaway Bride" is a more pleasant confection than "Pretty Woman". Believe me, you don't know how surprised I am to find myself writing this. Before I saw the movie I was all but certain it would be deathly stale. The premise - love blossoms between an insulting newspaper columnist and a serial jilter he writes about

• screamed, "This will spend two hours going nowhere" at me ... and the

curious thing is, now that I've seen the film, I can't even remember why I found the idea so unpromising. Maybe I was unduly swayed by the last Julia Roberts romantic comedy I saw, "I Love Trouble", which was at once thin, bloated, and flat.

"Runaway Bride" is none of these things. It's over two hours, but none of this is bloat: it takes its time because it NEEDS this time, given obstacle (c), to convincingly establish (a) and (b). The film doesn't waste our time any more than it wastes our own. I was never bored; very often I was even basking in the glow. Tastes in romantic comedy are hard to justify or defend, so I'll leave it at that.