The Bachelor ** (1999, Chris O’Donnell, Renée Zellweger, Artie Lange, Marley Shelton, Brooke Shields, Mariah Carey, Peter Ustinov, Hal Holbrook, James Cromwell, Edward Asner) – Classic Movie Review 4531

Chris O’Donnell takes the title role, as Jimmie Shannon, a commitment-phobic man who has to marry by the time he is 30 to claim his $100 million inheritance. Drably unfunny and listlessly acted, the story only comes alive in the closing set piece gag in which he is pursued through the streets of San Francisco by a stampeding army of would-be brides. Award the film two stars for that uniquely silly sequence, but otherwise this long, slow haul cruelly exposes O’Donnell’s limitations as a leading man.

Here O’Donnell is just fresh-faced, bland and boring. He was exactly right as Robin in the Nineties Batman movies and as Al Pacino’s youthful foil in Scent of a Woman, but otherwise his movie career has stalled in sundry pale showcases like this one.

The usually excellent Renée (Chicago) Zellweger has a thankless task as his on-off girlfriend (‘You win,’ is his romantic idea of a proposal) and hardly appears in the middle section of the movie. Marley Shelton, Brooke Shields and Mariah Carey are just some of the rivals who step in and Peter Ustinov slices some thick ham as the cranky granddad who leaves O’Donnell the money.

Director Gary Sinyor’s 1999 film is an unexpected remake of the 1925 Buster Keaton silent comedy film Seven Chances, based on a play by David Belasco and Roi Cooper Megrue.

O’Donnell’s Jimmie is the ultimate bachelor, a handsome guy who loves his freedom with plenty of swinging single buddies and a little black book filled with hundreds of women’s phone numbers. But when Jimmie meets Anne (Zellweger), a sweet, pretty photographer, who loves her independence as much as Jimmie, he knows that he has found true love and must kiss his bachelor life goodbye.

Jimmie plans to propose marriage, but he manages to turn their romantic evening into a catastrophe that sends Anne running to Beijing on a photographic assignment. Rejected and broken-hearted, Jimmie learns next day that his grandfather has died and left him $120 million. Just as he is about to start celebrating his wealth, he realises there is a catch: he is only entitled to the money if he marries before his 30th birthday, which is just 24 hours away.

Though the movie’s easygoing and good-natured enough, nobody is very good here at breathing fresh life into an old, old story, and it is particularly disappointing when you consider the high quality of the cast. It is however, worth staying for the finale, with the brides chasing O’Donnell, which is very amusing.

See how inflation affects movies: in 1925 the inheritance was only $7 million.

It is Mariah Carey’s movie debut, as Ilana. The film also stars Hal Holbrook, James Cromwell, Peter Ustinov, Edward Asner, Artie Lange, Marley Shelton, Katharine Towne, Rebecca Cross, Stacy Edwards, Sarah Silverman, Jennifer Esposito, Brooke Shields, Lydell M Cheshier, Robert Kotecki, Pat Finn, Timothy Paul Perez and Romy Rosemont.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4531

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