A lifelong slacker attempts to right his past misdeeds and win back the love of his ex and the respect of his son by running a London marathon in the heartwarming comedy “Run Fatboy Run.”
Faced with his impending nuptials, perpetual quitter Dennis (Simon Pegg) runs, literally, from the festivities, leaving his pregnant fianc�e, friends and guests in the middle of the road in a range of emotional states.
Fast forward five years.
Dennis is a security analyst for a major women’s retail outlet, a.k.a. a security guard at a ladies’ unmentionables shop. Days of chasing sticky-fingered transvestites (after all, are there any other kind?) down busy London streets lead to nights of verbal duels with his wise and equally wise-assed landlord, Mr. Ghoshdashtidar (Harish Patel). Rounding out Dennis’ life is the quality time he spends mucking up with his son, Jake (Matthew Fenton) and his best mate, Gordon (Dylan Moran), who is constantly recovering from the previous evening.
When Jake’s mom Libby (Thandie Newton) meets a new fellow, the super nuclear Whit (Hank Azaria), Dennis decides he wants to win his family back. He pushes himself into a charity marathon in order to prove that he is changed. Will Dennis be able to push beyond “the wall” and find there is more to the “Fatboy” than he ever imagined?
Pegg, everyone’s favorite zombie hunter, returns to do battle with his “stick-to-it-ivness” and paunch rather than brain feasters in his latest outing. Co-written with Michael Ian Black (“The State,” “Stella”), “Run Fatboy Run” is what we’ve come to expect from Pegg: self-effacing humor, surrounded by British wit, and the occasional gross-out quick, all wrapped up in a tidy little package guaranteed to warm even the chilliest of tickers.
This time around, Pegg switches out director Edgar Wright (“Shaun,” “Hot Fuzz”) for David “Ross” Schwimmer. To say Schwimmer’s directing experience is limited (“Friends” and the failed “Joey”) is to say that George W. Bush is a terrible orator. But, in a pleasant surprise, Schwimmer has taken inspiration from the previous works of Pegg and a surprising bit from Wes Anderson (shot framing, musical selections) to put together a well constructed product.
The story itself is a bit predictable but chock full of the eclectic characters and scenarios associated with Pegg’s work. His character’s first foray into the world of running is a complete chuckle fest as is his back-and-forth with his sagely landlord Patel. Azaria dons the “jackass” cloak to play yet another slimy manipulator while the exotic beauty and talent of Newton’s Libby shines through scene after scene. But most memorable is the interaction between Pegg and Moran’s Gordon (“Shaun of the Dead’s” David) and Pegg and his onscreen son Jake (Fenton, who glows in his debut).
I recommend “Run Fatboy Run” across the board as a lighthearted delight. Full of humor and sincerely sweet messages, it runs the emotional gamut giving the viewer a full theatrical experience. Plus, Buddha forgive me for saying this, it dares walk toward the line of “Rocky”-ish inspiration. All in all, not bad for a zombie thumping Brit.
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