CLEMENTINE'S REVIEWS

9th June 2008
Run Fatboy Run (2007)

We open with Dennis Doyle's wedding day. His beautiful bride-to-be,
Libby (Thandie Newton), glows with pregnancy and happiness as she
makes the final preparations before the aisle. Dennis (Simon Pegg) is
meanwhile hyperventilating in the other room and makes a quick stress fuelled runner out the window and down the street much to the distress of all the guests and his distraught bride. Flash forward to several years later - Dennis is a store security officer who has little respect from both shoplifters and co-workers. He is a struggling average joe with not much to call his own while his ex-fiancée, raising their now 5 year old boy, is dating a successful businessman (Hank Azaria) who is everything Dennis is not. He decides that to win his true love back he must finish a marathon.

It is a rather clichéd plot - underdog tries to win back his love from another man in a physical challenge. But it is also the story of a man who decides he wants to make more of himself - to be a man worth more than who he is by default. Simon Pegg has it. He's got this wonderful charisma; he is so watchable I have been glued to the screen in his efforts in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and again in
the heartwarming Run Fatboy Run. The story does feature a lot of heavy handedness particularly with igniting his motivation, but it is forgivable as the end result is about substance not style. A few scenes edited out would make the story flow better, but overall it is a pleasing movie which ultimately flags all audience expectations.

You'll like this if: you don't mind a predictable underdog story, and add points if you like Simon Pegg.

You'll probably not like this if: you want something a bit more out of the box.

Read Alaris' review of Run Fatboy Run (2007).