''Run Fatboy Run'' is a 2007
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
David Schwimmer, written by
Michael Ian Black and
Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg,
Dylan Moran
Dylan William Moran ( ; born 3 November 1971) is an Irish comedian, writer, actor, artist and poet. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series ''Black Books'' (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Peg ...
,
Thandiwe Newton,
Harish Patel,
India de Beaufort and
Hank Azaria. It was released in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2007, in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
on 10 September 2007 and in the United States on 28 March 2008.
Plot
Dennis Doyle is about to marry Libby, his
pregnant
Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins.
Pregnancy usually occur ...
fiancée. However, he gets cold feet and runs away on the day of the wedding. Five years later, Dennis discovers that Libby, who has their son, Jake, has started seeing successful but arrogant Whit and realises that he has truly lost her. He finds out that Whit is running the Nike River Marathon in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, and to prove himself to his uncertain friends and, most importantly, Libby and his son, he decides to run the race himself.
He receives motivation from his two "coaches", Gordon, a well-meaning
slacker who is Libby's cousin and Dennis' best friend, who has made a hefty bet on Dennis succeeding, and Mr. Ghosh Dastidar, his landlord, who uses unorthodox methods of training, such as using a spatula to spank him. Days before the race, Whit proposes to Libby at her birthday party. Libby accepts and this puts Dennis in a state of deep
depression. As a result, he decides to quit the race.
Meanwhile, Jake, who has formed a crush on a girl in his class, runs away upset when he discovers that she prefers another boy just because he has a ponytail. Dennis, upon being informed by a frantic Libby, tracks him down and explains to him that he will find many things he does not like in his life and he should just stand up to them and face them, rather than running away. Having made that mistake himself, he decides to race after all.
Dennis starts the race alongside Whit, who informs Dennis that he intends to move Libby and Jake to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. Enraged, Dennis mocks Whit and they altercate for a while at the start of the race and, in their efforts to out-do each other, they catch up to and then overtake the professional runners, and suddenly, Whit trips Dennis and severely injures him. Stretchers prepare to take Dennis to the hospital.
Whit continues, but is taken to the hospital after feeling pain in his leg. Libby goes to the hospital to look for Dennis, but finds Whit, who claims loudly that his injuries are the result of Dennis deliberately tripping him. The doctor tells him he is not actually injured and has only "
hit the wall
In endurance sports such as road cycling and long-distance running, hitting the wall or the bonk is a condition of sudden fatigue and loss of energy which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles. Milder instances ...
". Jake is playing with Whit's hospital bed, and to Libby's disgust, Whit calls him a "little shit".
Dennis has in fact refused to be transported to the hospital or even get medical attention and is continuing the race well into the afternoon and evening with a sprained ankle, accompanied by a growing group of supporters, including Gordon and Mr. Ghosh Dastidar. A panting Dennis almost "hits the wall", but after an emotional
epiphany
Epiphany may refer to:
* Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight
Religion
* Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ
** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...
, his goal to complete the race is restored. Later at Whit's house, Libby, Jake and Whit watch a television replay of the Whit/Dennis altercation, as the replay shows that in fact Whit had deliberately tripped Dennis and had fallen over because Dennis pulled him down as he was falling.
As Whit tries to justify his behaviour, he blurts out his intentions to have Libby and Jake move to Chicago with him. A fed up Libby puts the engagement ring on a table, telling Whit "nobody's perfect" and storms out with Jake. The two go to meet Dennis as he arrives at the finish line. Dennis falls over just metres from the finish line and cannot get up until he sees Libby and Jake calling to him, at which point he gets up, sprints to the finish and collapses in their arms.
Some time later, notably healthier and fully recovered from his injuries, Dennis calls at Libby's house to pick up Jake. He says that he has something to ask her, but is interrupted by Jake, and says he'll talk to her later. However, just after she shuts the door, he knocks again and asks her on a date. She accepts.
In the film's postscript, Gordon — on the bridge of a new yacht — tells the tale of the race to two attractive bikini-clad women, whom he invites aboard for a drink. The camera then pans to reveal to the audience that he's, as usual, naked below the waist.
Cast
![Simon Pegg 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Simon_Pegg_01.jpg)
*
Simon Pegg as Dennis Doyle
*
Thandiwe Newton as Libby Odell (credited as Thandie Newton)
*
Hank Azaria as Whit Bloom
*
Dylan Moran
Dylan William Moran ( ; born 3 November 1971) is an Irish comedian, writer, actor, artist and poet. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series ''Black Books'' (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Peg ...
as Gordon
*
Harish Patel as Mr. Ghosh Dastidar
*
India de Beaufort as Maya Ghosh Dastidar
* Matthew Fenton as Jake
*
Simon Day as Vincent
*
Ruth Sheen as Claudine
* Tyrone Huggins as Grover
* Nevan Finegan as Mickey
*
Iddo Goldberg as News reporter
*
Floella Benjamin
Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin, (born 23 September 1949GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1980 14 0207 LAMBETH – Keith D. Taylor=Floella K.Y. Benjamin) is a Trinidadian-British actress, singer, presenter, author, businesswoman, ...
as Libby's mother
*
Chris Hollins as Sports reporter
*
Denise Lewis
Denise Lewis (born 27 August 1972) is a British sports presenter and former track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was twice Commonwealth Games champion, ...
as Sports reporter
*
Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz ( ; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, best known for his roles as the title character in the 2016 live-action series of ''The Tick'', Pete in ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004) and ...
as Sports commentator
*
Stephen Merchant as Man in suit at bottom of stairs hit by falling wheelchair
*
David Walliams
David Edward Williams (born 20 August 1971), known professionally as David Walliams, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series '' Little B ...
as Customer in Libby's shop
*
Michael Johnson as Marathon runner
*
Bill Bailey
Mark Robert Bailey (born 13 January 1965), known professionally as Bill Bailey, is an English musician, comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Manny in the sitcom ''Black Books'' and his appearances on the panel shows ''Never Mind the ...
as Man dressed as Gandalf
*
Margaret John
Margaret John (14 December 1926 – 2 February 2011) was a Welsh, BAFTA award-winning actress, known for her role as Doris O'Neill in ''Gavin & Stacey''.
Early life
Born in Swansea, as a child she wanted to be a nurse or vet, but she could ...
as Libby's grandmother
*
David Schwimmer as Man Handing Dennis a Beer During Race
Reception
Box office
''Run Fat Boy Run'' topped the United Kingdom box office, earning £2 million in its opening weekend, and remained at the top of the chart for four weeks. To date, it has earned over £11 million in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, the film grossed $33.5 million.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 46% based on reviews from 156 critics. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Dennis Harvey of ''
Variety'' had positive notices for actor turned director David Schwimmer, calling it the work of "a thoroughly competent mainstream craftsman who imposes no individual character on formulaic material."
Peter Travers of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' wrote: "Run, Fat Boy, Run stays out of sitcom quicksand long enough to make you think that Schwimmer has a knack for this comedy-directing thing."
Home media
The DVD and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
were released on 18 February 2008 in the United Kingdom.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Run Fat Boy Run
2007 films
2007 romantic comedy films
American track and field films
American romantic comedy films
American sports comedy films
British romantic comedy films
British sports comedy films
2000s English-language films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about interracial romance
Films scored by Alex Wurman
Films set in London
Films shot in London
Picturehouse films
Films with screenplays by Simon Pegg
Films directed by David Schwimmer
2000s sports comedy films
2007 directorial debut films
2000s American films
2000s British films