Running For Love
August 20th, 2007
Most people (though I don't count myself among them) find it difficult to imagine Simon Pegg as a romantic interest. Even I admit that the gauche, paunchy commitmentphobe in Run Fat Boy Run is a hard man to love.
But he's a better man than his rival for Libby's (Thandie Newton) affections, American financier Whit (Hank Azaria, currently audible as myriad characters in the Simpsons feature). For a start, he doesn't go to spinning classes. On the other hand, he also got his young son arrested - five years after abandoning his pregnant girlfriend at the altar.
And so begins a tortoise and hare story for our times. After being released from jail, Dennis (Pegg) has an epiphany: win the marathon and win the girl. Oh, yes - and send fit Whit packing.
Run Fat Boy Run is not a complex movie, and only Maya (India de Beaufort) threatens to upset the story's presumed trajectory. With former Friend David Schwimmer in the director's chair, that's probably for the best.
This is essentially an old fashioned heart warming tale. Pegg is a slacker with a heart of gold who stops being scared of love and starts sticking to his goals. Bets are lost (and won). Shoes are changed. The running skills we saw in Hot Fuzz are noticeably absent.
Yet it's inspiring - and while I won't be tackling the marathon next year, I did get back into yoga the very next day. Just in case his next romcom has an open casting call.
Run Fat Boy Run opens 17 September.
Image: IMDb
