Run, Fatboy, Run
The most I can say about the feature directorial debut for “Friends” actor David Schwimmer is that he doesn’t screw it up for his cast. The screenplay by Michael Ian Black and star Simon Pegg is British farce dressed up as Hollywood cliche, which is contradictory to the previous films Pegg co-wrote with director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”), which took it to cliche in quintessentially British farces. Not that there’s anything wrong with that- it’s still more fun than this story would have any rights being in lesser hands- and it’s not the first time in the past year a Yank has shown a good eye for laughs in the British vein (see Frank Oz’s underrated “Death at a Funeral”). It’s good to see the animosity of the Revolutionary War is finally behind us. 🙂
Pegg stars as Dennis, an out-of-shape security guard at a local lingere store who left his fiancee Libby (Thandie Newton) at the alter five years ago, with a child on the way no less. Libby is understandably still less-than-thrilled with Dennis, who hopes for reconciliation, but is happy enough that she’s allowed him to stay in the life of their son Jake (Matthew Fenton). That is, until Libby starts seeing American businessman Wit (Hank Azaria, less subdued than we normally see the “Simpsons” voiceover master, but still good for a few stolen laughs and scenes), who is everything Dennis isn’t, and has started “jumping on the bed” (in Jake’s words) with mommy. Despite his less-than-perfect physique, Dennis looks to change, and win back Libby, even if that means running a long-distance marathon for charity to show up Wit, even if that means being a runner for erectile dysfunction.
Really, there’s not a lot you can say about the movie, except that Schwimmer has a good eye for comedy filmmaking, not that it’s hard when you have stars like Pegg (a consumate everyman you can’t help but root for; I can’t wait to see him as Scotty in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot), Newton (who defines loveliness), and Azaria. Add to that Irish comedian Dylan Moran (a co-star from “Shaun”) as Dennis’ best friend Gordon- who’s often seen gambling it up, or in the nude from the bottom down, and apparently had something worse than blister puss shot in his eye at one time- and even if “Run, Fatboy, Run” doesn’t win a whole lot of style points, you laugh enough anyway to give it an A for effort, which is still more than other films can cop to nowadays.
