Product: The Bachelor (1999)
Rating: 4.0
Formula Romantic Comedy with some twists
Years before ABC started their own "Reality TV show" about a Bachelor having to choose from a group of marriage-minded women, there was this film, which I didn't see until just recently. Like most romantic comedies, it follows the same formula of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy grovels to win back girl and they marry and live happily ever after. Pretty standard, unoriginal, and uninspired...and this film starts off that way and doesn't really take off until the bachelor (played by Chris O'Donnell) views a video will of his grandfather. Therein lies the premise...The bachelor is the last of his friends to get married, and his grandfather wants to ensure that his genetic line doesn't die off if his grandson doesn't do his manly duty: matrimony and parenthood. But the grandfather dies and makes a condition on the inheritence (shades of "Brewster's Millions"--which is thankfully mentioned in this film)...the bachelor will inherit $100 million only if he marries before he turns 30 years old to the exact minute of his birth. And, the marriage has to last at least ten years and produce offspring before he will get to see the money. Since the bachelor turns 30 a week later, he begins calling his exs in desperate attempt to find a bride, since the love of his life was insulted by his non-proposal earlier (instead of "will you marry me?" he states his case pro and con regarding marriage and tells Renee Zellweger "you win!").I loved the surprise cameos of his exs, which I won't reveal here so first time viewers can be surprised themselves. They cameos of some famous ladies were a nice touch to lift this film out of the standard cliches of the romantic comedy genre. What clinches this movie for me, in terms of originality and humor is the running of the brides through the streets of San Francisco. Its completely zany and unbelievable, but romantic comedies do have quirks like these to stand out above the rest. The scene is just so outlandishly funny and well done that I thought it saved the movie as a whole. Its reminiscent of "the running of the bulls" in Pamplona, Spain...and considering that Chris O'Donnell played Ernest Hemingway in "In Love and War", I thought that was a nice touch.There is one major discrepancy with this film. The brides chasing the groom begins at the Amtrak station and its not long until they are running the streets of San Francisco (North Beach?)...yet that is a near impossibility. The Amtrak station is actually across the bay in Emeryville, not San Francisco...so anyone who has been there knows that the makers of this film used a lot of creative license to make the climatic scene flow.Overall, an amusing film, though by no means a great one. It is entertaining and takes some well deserved pokes at the expectations that both men and women have regarding marriage (loss of freedom for men, fairy-tale fantasy for women, as one amazon reviewer pointed out). See it for what it is...good for a few laughs.