FAMOUS for his role in Friends, this is David Schwimmer’s debut as director. It’s a spry romantic comedy which proves nice guys can finish last and still get the girl. Simon Pegg, who co-starred with Schwimmer in black comedy Big Nothing, delivers another endearing performance as a slacker in desperate need of direction. Ever since he left his pregnant fiancée Libby (Thandie Newton) standing at the altar, Dennis (Pegg) has cultivated the reputation of a man who never finishes anything, preferring to run away from responsibility. He still sees Libby, who runs a successful cupcake shop, but only to ensure he has contact with their son, Jake. “I’m sick of being the nearlyman,” he laments, and so his overweight, commitment-shy bachelor opts for the most radical course of action: to run a marathon. The screenplay – co-written by Pegg – gets considerable mileage out of the central character’s suffering as he prepares for 26 miles on the road. A huge blister, ripe for bursting, provides the obligatory gross-out scene. Any hopes Dennis harbours of wooing back Libby are dashed when he meets her new man, the charming Whit (Hank Azaria) who runs marathons for charity. Determined to prove all the doubters wrong and to win back Libby, Dennis resolves to run alongside Whit in the Nike River Race, a marathon around the streets of London. Run Fat Boy Run maintains a steady pace and a couple of sequences merit belly laughs. But ironically, once the starter’s gun fires, Schwimmer’s film runs out of comic steam and it stumbles to a shamelessly sentimental finish. | 
