Film that plays like a BBC television comedy

Rating: 6/10 (23 March 2008)

My guess is that mentioning the name Simon Pegg doesn't generate any face-to-name recognition. As an actor, he has a resume that includes some 45 television and movie role credits. As a writer, his career seemed stuck in video hell with the exception of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz  two recent films that he both wrote and starred. But my bet is that if I put Simon Pegg into a police lineup, most people would be unable to identify the godfather to Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple.
This is likely to change as Pegg has been cast as Scotty in the J.J. Abrams' Star Trek prequel due to be released this Christmas. In the meantime, Pegg has kept himself busy writing and starring in the David Schwimmer (Friends) new comedy Run Fatboy Run.
Run Fatboy Run's story is your run of the mill comedy plot. Guy gets girl. Guy loses girl. Guy tries to impress girl to win her back. Guy gets girl. Easy ka-cheesy.
This time 'round it's Dennis (Pegg) who left a pregnant Libby (Thandie Newton) at the alter five years ago. In the half a decade that has passed since the groom ran down the street with the wedding party screaming his name in the background, and Dennis and Libby's lives have taken different directions. Libby seems to have done alright for herself. Granted, we never really find out what career path she has taken, but her home is quiet quaint and her lifestyle seems relaxed and at ease. On the other side of the fence there's Dennis. Dennis works as a security guard for a woman's clothing store. He lives in a basement apartment of a Mr. Ghoshdashtidar  a rotund, Indian man that later becomes integral to the 'win-back-Libby' crusade. Dennis doesn't have enough money to pay his rent and his excursions with his son usually command imaginative thinking like climbing a tree and scaring the beejeezus out of unsuspecting visitors by throwing sticks at trashcans when the walk by.
It takes the introduction of Whit (Hank Azaria) to push Dennis into action. Whit is the new boyfriend of Libby. He is everything Dennis is not. He's successful. Seemingly intelligent. Well dressed and spoken. And, most notably for the films plot, he is entered into a Nike 26-mile marathon for charity.
Dennis is obviously jealous of Whit's involvement in his family's life and in an effort to win back the respect of his ex-girlfriend, Dennis also finds a way to enter the marathon and begins training three weeks before the event.
Most of the comedy accompanies his training. There is his jogging outfit that looks like something Mr. Bean would wear to a public pool. There is his first attempt at running that gets him to the end of his street before cramping up and calling it a day. And then there's the foot blister that caused most of our audience to squirm in their seats and many to watch the scene through the slots in their fingers covering their eyes. This middle section to the film provides a few chuckles without the belly busting laughs.
By the time Dennis finally takes to the starting line alongside nemesis Whit, you can write the ending without having viewed the final reels. Sure, it was touching but the ending was never in doubt and you can draw from countless films of the same ilk to find endings of similar fashion.
As a directorial debut for Schwimmer (theatrical debut, as he has done television work), Run Fatboy Run showed his inexperience. The entire experience played like a BBC television program including some bad cuts between scenes that you could imagine ending abruptly for commercial placement. The pacing was consistent, but that's what we want out of 30-minute comedies. In theatrical events where we pay a good dollar to experience, we want large highs and just enough lows to catch our breath.
Instead we got a 'safe' film where the laughs are produced through our main characters reactions to the situations and people around him. Most notably are the second tier characters, Gordon (Dylan Moran) and Ghoshdashtidar (Harish Patel). Gordon plays Dennis' best friend and Libby's cousin and does his best to inject some humor into lines and situations that wouldn't warrant these results if the film was based on actual characters. And only the British can make lines such as "The only serious relationship I've been in ended in a broken collarbone and a dead meerkat.". Not classic, but the audience did render a unanimous snicker.
Mr. Ghoshdashtidar steals a few laughs by acting as Dennis' Miyagi with a spatula. Together with Gordon, the two provide us with the laughs when Dennis is busy trying to get serious again with his plot objectives.
The end result for Run Fatboy Run is that it is a safe and intermittently funny film that will provide you entertainment and have you forget almost everything except for a blister popping scene in the morning. It is a film that does have a heart  it just doesn't have a regular heartbeat and that what keeps it from being more than just another comedy that collects in our viewing catalogues like ties on Father's Day.
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