SUGGESTION: When making a film called “Run Fat Boy Run,” how about hiring a fat boy? Watching a scrawny guy run doesn’t provide a lot more comedic surprise than “Run Kenyan Guy Run” would have.
Simon Pegg, co-writer and star of the hilarious mockbusters “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz,” features in somebody else’s script (though he did do a rewrite) about a London bloke who, on his wedding day, comes down with a case of the panics and literally sprints away from his pregnant bride – played by Thandie Newton. To win her back from her rich new beau (Hank Azaria) five years later, he decides to complete a marathon, showing he can dedicate himself to something or other.
Writing “Simon Pegg” and “Thandie Newton” in the same sentence nearly made my keyboard explode. She’s an interplanetary beauty sent to us by a superior life form. He’s a ginger-haired mutt. What exactly is she attracted to? His job as a security guard at an underwear boutique? I can’t classify the two in the same species, much less the same apartment.
Pegg’s Dennis does come across as a sweet guy, though, and Azaria is strong as the oblivious overdog in, for instance, a scene in which his financier invites Dennis to a gym for a workout, then casually strips naked and powders up his man-parts as Dennis gasps, either because he’s out of breath or just plain amazed.
Thanks to a jaunty Brit-rock score and likable characters all around, the movie’s easy to watch and occasionally pumps up the emotions, especially in the scenes in which Dennis plays with his now 5-year-old son. You root for Dennis without quite hating Azaria’s Whit, who doesn’t even see Dennis as competition. Says Whit: “You’re not a tough act to follow.”
First-time director David Schwimmer keeps things simple (possibly too simple), finds comedy in the characters and saves some of his best stuff for the third act, such as a scene in which the runner “hits the wall.” Even Dennis’ nutty mission to prove his worth by doing something hundreds of thousands of others have done almost makes sense by the end.
Everything is lightly amusing (Dennis’ Indian landlord fondly tells him a romantic tale about his own tragic lost love: “I remember all the humping”), but nothing is terribly funny. (One brilliant touch: When Dennis is running, someone hands him a pint of beer instead of water.)
Schwimmer also basically forgets to put the meat in the story sandwich when, instead of painstakingly presenting just how an out-of-shape guy could possibly get into marathon form in three weeks (then match the fitness-obsessed Azaria character stride for stride), he merely rushes through a Comedy Training Montage much like the three others I’ve already seen this month.