During a recent training trek (2010-07-05 - Rock Creek Trail) Rebecca Rosenberg mentioned a film "... about a man training to run a marathon to get his girlfriend back ...". Neither of us could remember the title, but Paulette knew: Run, Fat Boy, Run in its US version, aka Run, Fatboy, Run in the original UK release. I found a used copy of the DVD via the Miracle of the Interwebs and watched it Saturday evening.

Make no mistake: Fatboy is not about distance running. It's a romantic comedy that has, as a plot element, a fictional "Nike River Run". Maybe some of the people involved heard tell of marathon training. Maybe they saw part of a marathon on television. There's no evidence that any of them ever ran one. "Wildly inaccurate" is an understatement for that aspect of this movie. If that bothers you, don't watch it.

"But aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead fame, is the smoking, drinking, underachieving protagonist who leaves his pregnant fianceé, easy-on-the-eyes Thandie Newton, at the altar. Five years later she's being courted by another man, and Pegg decides to win her heart by training (for three weeks!) and running (loosely defined) a marathon. Silliness ensues.

Fatboy in many ways resembles Walk, Don't Run, a 1964 movie ostensibly about race-walking in the Tokyo Olympic games. Both are fun and foolish films, entertaining distractions. (And did I mention easy-on-the-eyes Thandie Newton?)

(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_Fatboy_Run and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425413/) - ^z - 2010-07-27