Runaway Bride

“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation either in time or eternity,” Soren Kierkegaard said, and he was obviously right. The 1999 strong romantic comedy, “Runaway Bride,” shows that emotional truth.

Julia Roberts plays Maggie Carpenter, a hardware store owner in Hale, Maryland, who has left three fiancés at the altar watching her ride away on a horse. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat said in their review, “This isn't just a bad case of premarital jitters; this is abandoning the ship.”

When Ike Graham, played by Richard Gere, a sarcastic columnist for USA Today, hears about this, he uses her as the main focus in, as Brussat mentioned, “a caustic commentary on women as maneaters.” She says there’s mistakes in the story, and before he knows what’s going on, he is fired by his boss, played by Rita Wilson, for not checking his sources. Wanting evidence, he accepts a work to write a profile of Maggie. Ike travels to the small town where she lives, wanting to tell the real story against the setting of her upcoming marriage to Bob, played by Christopher Meloni, a physical education teacher and passionate mountain climber.

Everybody has an opinion about Maggie running from marriage – her escape has become a joke in the city – and they are willing to talk to Ike about it, including her alcoholic father (Paul Dooley), her feisty grandmother (Jean Schertler), her best friend (Joan Cusack), and the men she ghosted at the altar.

Brussat noted, “From the vivid opening scene of the runaway bride on a galloping horse, her bridal gown flowing behind her, to the heart-warming finale, director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) draws out all the magic comic moments in this satisfying love story.” “Runaway Bride” speaks to the hesitant person inside us who is always on the go. It also reminds us that love can’t open our hearts until we stop lying to ourselves. Making that deal is possible once we stop believing the false belief we have about ourselves.

I remember one time my siblings and I were talking about going to the theaters to see a movie. The choices we had were either seeing “The Phantom Menace” again, or going to see either “Inspector Gadget” or this. We didn’t want to see “The Phantom Menace” again and my sister and I were not wanting to see “Runaway Bride.” My brother was saying let’s not go to the theater, but my sister and I forced my brother to go see “Inspector Gadget,” which is a mistake I regret making, especially after seeing Nostalgia Critic’s review of the “Inspector Gadget” movie.

Sorry for going off on that tangent there, but I don’t know what I would have thought if I saw this movie in the theaters. However, seeing it later as an adult, I found myself actually enjoying this film. Especially seeing it reunite Richard Gere and Julia Roberts after “Pretty Woman.” I don’t get why critics didn’t like this movie. I thought this was a good romantic comedy. Check it out and decide for yourself.

Next week I will look at a biographical film that Roberts starred in as we continue along with “Julia Roberts Month.”