Runaway Bride (film)

A 1999 Romantic Comedy directed by Garry Marshall. The plot is relatively simple. Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) is a young woman with a fear of commitment. Besides a string of abandoned boyfriends, she has left three would-be husbands at the altar. Her case has attracted enough press attention to interest the resident Intrepid Reporter.

Said reporter is Ike Graham (Richard Gere), recently unemployed after writing a libelous article about Miss Carpenter. Realizing the story was full of factual errors and Malicious Slander provided by the men whose heart Carpenter has broken, Graham decides to find the Runaway Bride and find the truth behind her story.

He finds her preparing for her fourth potential marriage. At first, Ike decides to help Maggie face her fears. However, the two start becoming attracted to each other. Bob Kelly (Christopher Meloni), her current fiancé, doesn't particularly appreciate that kind of help.

The film was in Development Hell for about a decade and several other actors were considered for the three main roles. Women considered for the role of Maggie included Lorraine Bracco, Sandra Bullock, Geena Davis, Ellen DeGeneres, Anjelica Huston, Tea Leoni, Demi Moore, and Mary Steenburgen. Men considered for the role of Ike included Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Christopher Walken, and Ben Affleck.

When the film finally premiered it was a box office hit. Its worldwide lifetime gross is estimated to $309,457,509, scoring $152,257,509 in the United States market and making it the 9th most commercially successful film of its year. The critics, however, have been much less kind to it and its subject matter.


 * Balcony Escape: When Maggie is spying on Ike.
 * Double Standard: Basically the whole portrayal of Maggie jilting men at the altar as being "cute" and "whimsical" and her ex-fiancés as being complete jerks for being upset by it.
 * Hooked Up Afterwards: A long sequence of these takes place over the credits.
 * Love Triangle. Between Maggie, Ike and Bob.
 * Runaway Bride, of course.
 * Working with the Ex: Graham works for his ex-wife (his editor). She has to fire him for not checking facts, and producing a totally overblown, inaccurate column about the titular character.