Runaway Bride

It had to come: Roberts and Gere together again nine years after Pretty Woman. With director Marshall back on board too, one supposes the studio reckoned the rest of the movie would somehow take care of itself. Gere does grumpy and smug as Ike Graham, NY newspaper columnist, who turns a drunk's story about a small town gal with a penchant for leaving men at the altar into a typically combative think piece. It elicits a sharp letter from one Maggie Carpenter (Roberts), who has only left three guys high and dry thus far, and claims a host of other inaccuracies in the story. Chastened, Ike hastens off to write a feature on the so-called 'Runaway Bride'. The succession of contrived dilemmas on the way to an obviously unalterable destination does drag after a while - a shame, since Gere and Roberts are comfortable on screen, and Cusack brings a wealth of charm to her thankless part of the best girl pal. In the end, though, it surrenders to lame synthetic mush and the light goes out of its eyes.