Runaway Bride (Julia Roberts, Richard Gere)

It’s almost ten years since we saw the romantic comedy film ‘Runaway Bride’, and we had pretty much forgotten the storyline. So it was a good one to choose for an evening in when we were both quite tired.

Richard Gere plays a journalist called Ike. He writes a regular column in a newspaper, which is usually somewhat negative about women. He usually leaves it to the last moment. He’s trying to find something new when he gets chatting to someone in a bar. This stranger tells him about a young woman called Maggie, in his home town, who has run away - he claims - from seven potential bridegrooms, leaving them at the altar.

So Ike writes his article without checking for accuracy, and the newspaper is sued. He loses his job, but someone else suggests he go and meet Maggie and find out the truth.

Maggie (Julia Roberts) has only, in fact, run away from three marriages. She is now engaged to a sports coach called Bob. He thinks she has been panicking so he has been helping her with guided visualisation and deep breathing. Ike meets Maggie’s friends, and interviews her former fiances, and gets to know her family… she initially dislikes him intensely, but gradually realises that he’s a nice guy.

Inevitably there’s an attraction… but she’s engaged to Bob, and convinced he is the one for her. And her wedding is just a few days away. The venue is booked, caterers arranged, and a large guest list invited. Ike realises that Maggie is something of a laughing-stock in the town, and that she’s also quite insecure.

There’s a lot of humour in this film, which is cleverly scripted, and has some nicely choreographed incidents too. There’s also a more poignant side, as we begin to see the people Maggie has hurt; we also see something of why she is so afraid of commitment. We hadn’t remembered any of the detail, so could not recall whether or not she eventually goes through with a wedding, and (if so) to whom.

It’s very well-made; there’s great chemistry between Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and some good (albeit caricatured) support from Maggie’s friends and family. It’s rated PG, which is rare and refreshing in this kind of film, made in 1999. There’s no nudity, no overt intimacy, and only scene including minor violence. Even the language is very mild. While the storyline is unlikely to be of interest to a child, there’s nothing inappropriate for younger viewers.

Definitely recommended for a light evening’s viewing.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

On Golden Pond (Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn)

It’s almost ten years since we saw - and loved - the 1981 film ‘On Golden Pond’. We vaguely remembered the story and characters, although we had forgotten most of the detail. It’s a film about an older couple, one which I can remember finding slightly stressful the first time we saw it, as I kept thinking some tragedy was about to happen. This time, although I couldn’t recall how it ended, I felt more confident that I would like it all.

Henry Fonda stars as the somewhat grouchy and outspoken Norman. He and his wife Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) have gone to stay in their holiday home by a wonderful lake. Norman has some heart problems, for which he takes medication, and he’s also starting to get a bit of memory loss, which disturbs him more. But he’s approaching 80 and Ethel, ten years his junior, is determined to celebrate.

Their daughter Chelsea has agreed to visit, along with her new man - a dentist called Bill (Dabney Coleman). Norman and Chelsea have a very tense relationship; she is very sensitive, and feels as if he still treats her like a small child, despite her being an adult with a career and a string of relationships. It’s suggested that she has trouble staying in a relationship as she never resolved the tensions she feels with her father.

Chelsea and Bill bring Bill’s 13-year-old son Billy Junior (Doug McKeon) with them. He immediately clashes with Norman, but his outspokenness and teenage angst appeal to Norman’s natural cantankerousness, and he’s able to handle Billy much better than anyone else. And when Bill and Chelsea leave for a conference, young Billy and the elderly Normal forge an unlikely bond over fishing.

The casting is superb; Chelsea is played by Henry Fonda’s daughter Jane, with whom he apparently had a tense relationship anyway. The scenery is fabulous, the pace gentle but never dull. There are some terrific lines, mostly from Norman, which made us laugh out loud and there are also some very poignant moments. There are underlying ‘lessons’ about how to handle difficult family members; Chelsea resents the fact that her father gets along much better with Billy than he ever did with her - or so she feels, full of resentment at the way he behaves.

There are some tense scenes, a few fishing incidents where I had to turn away rather than watch, and a great deal of love, albeit often badly expressed. It’s a character-based story which allows blossoming friendships and healed relationships, but the problems and anxieties of old age are not hidden or glossed over. It’s thought-provoking and revealing, and we both thought it a wonderful film.

Rated PG, perhaps for the very mild language and a couple of tense scenes, but it’s unlikely to be of interest to anyone under the age of about twelve or thirteen anyway. Probably most interesting to people in their fifties or older.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor)

Last year when I put the loosely biographical film ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’ on my wishlist, Amazon recommended another film, confusingly called just ‘Christopher Robin’. The reviews weren’t quite as good but it sounded interested - if a tad weird - so I added that to my wishlist too, and was delighted to receive it (as well as the other one) for Christmas last year.

We watched ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’ about six weeks ago, and thought it an outstanding film, well worth seeing. Then we watched ‘Christopher Robin’ last night; it was good that we left a few weeks’ gap since of course the characters were played by different actors. This is a Disney story rather than having any reality in it, other than some rapidly shown drawings from AA Milne’s classic books.

This film opens with the animals in the Hundred Acre Wood, presumably CGI versions, having a goodbye party for their friend Christopher Robin as he is sent to boarding school. But there are no scenes from school; we next meet him as an adult (brilliantly played by Ewan McGregor). From this point all is fictional: he is known as Mr Robin (rather than Milne), and he works for a luggage factory. He is married to Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and they have a daughter called Madeline (Bronte Carmichael).

Christopher has forgotten his childhood friends, and what used to matter to him. He is caught up in his work, albeit reluctantly at times. We meet him as he’s about to take his wife and daughter to their cottage for the weekend, only to discover that he’s expected to work hard to find some way of cutting the company’s expenses.

There’s a rather strange mixture of realism and fantasy in this film. Since the image on the front of the DVD shows it, it’s no spoiler to say that one of the childhood animals - who walk and talk in the hundred acre wood - emerges into London and finds his old friend. But Christopher Robin is not entirely pleased to see him, particularly when people around him start noticing that he has a talking stuffed animal.

There are some cleverly choreographed scenes as chaos takes over the household, forcing Christopher to travel down to the cottage, where his wife and daughter have gone on their own, to try to restore his old friend to his natural surroundings.

Of course the storyline is rather predictable. Work contrasts with family life, not just for Christopher but for his daughter who is very academic and is soon to be sent to boarding school. She doesn’t really know how to play at all. It’s classic Disney, and becomes more so as the film progresses. There’s a villain - Christopher’s boss - who is really quite unpleasant, but is ousted eventually, and there’s a happy ending when everything falls nicely into place.

But despite there being no real surprises, it’s surprisingly cute, amusing at times, and even poignant towards the end. It could provide a good reminder to serious folk that it’s important to play, that families matter, and that we should not forget our childhood stuffed animals.

The rating is PG, which seems about right; there’s no bad language, no innuendoes or even partial nudity. There are very brief war scenes but nothing too scary. Perhaps a very sensitive young child might be worried by the scene involving a ‘heffalump’; maybe some young children wouldn’t really appreciate the theme of a man absorbed by work and neglecting his wife and daughter. But for anyone over the age of about eight or nine, who doesn’t mind some bizarrely surreal scenes, I would recommend this.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews