Susan Granger’s review of “Run, Fat Boy, Run” (Picturehouse)
What has David Schwimmer – a.k.a. Dr. Ross Geller – been up to since the demise of TV’s “Friends”? He’s hopped across the pond to make his directorial debut with this relationship comedy.
Commitment-phobic, emotionally immature Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg from “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”) is a big-time loser. It’s not that he’s actually fat; pudgy would be more accurate. No, his sin is that he got cold feet and bolted, leaving his very pregnant fiancée Libby (Thandie Newton from “Crash”) at the altar. Not a swift move.
Five years later, he’s living in the North London basement flat of an Indian widower, Mr. Ghoshdashtidar (Harish Patel), and poignantly participating in parenting their young son Jake (Matthew Festoon), hoping to win back Libby’s affections. In the interim, Libby has become involved with Whit (Hank Azaria from “Dodgeball”), a wealthy, good-looking American hedge-fund trader – and Dennis’ chances are growing dimmer daily.
So – to prove his worth – Dennis, this chain-smoking, beer-swilling slob, decides to run a 26-mile charity marathon, to compete with Whit, as it were. At his side is his poker-playing mate, Gordon (Irish comedian Dylan Moran, also from “Shaun of the Dead”), who bets his savings on Dennis and becomes his coach, along with Mr. Ghoshdashtidar, who buys him splendid running shoes and paddles him with a spatula when he’s lazy.
Using conventional slapstick gags and inventive crosscutting, David Schwimmer makes the most of the somewhat innocuous, totally predictable, obscenity and profanity-laden, slacker script by Michael Ian Black (“Reno 911: Miami”) and Simon Pegg, scoring as a creditable, if not memorable, director. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Run, Fat Boy, Run” trudges in with a mediocre 5. My advice is to wait for the video/dvd.
