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If Runaway Bride were any slicker, it would've slid off projector spools across America last summer. The film elicits programmed responses from its viewers, unfolding as it does with utmost professionalism. I am easily manipulated but difficult to impress, and that's why I'm half-heartedly recommending this second collaboration (after Pretty Woman) of actors Richard Gere and Julia Roberts and director Garry Marshall.

Roberts is Maggie Carpenter, the title character. In our first glimpse of her she's on horseback, fleeing her third wedding prior to the exchange of vows. New Yorker Ike Graham (Gere), a chauvanistic scribbler for "USA TODAY," gets a broken telephone rendition of Maggie's past and publishes it for his latest column. Maggie reads it disbelievingly and demands a retraction--and the editor (Rita Wilson) does her one better: she fires Ike, leading Ike to Hale, Maryland, where the runaway bride resides. The newspaperman is determined to prove his unverified story true, and/or gather material for a bigger, better article on the same subject.

There are two types of communities in Hollywood movies: congested and idyllic. In the case of any number of fish-out-of-water stories (Doc Hollywood comes to mind), an urban dweller is plucked from the former and deposited into the latter, where he/she discovers that a town with a squash festival is better than one without. To Runaway Bride's credit, Ike's adjustment to rural life isn't dwelled upon--if you think about it, everybody knows his name in the big city by reputation, and everybody knows his name in Hale because gossip spreads quickly in these parts. What's the difference?

That is about the only surprising plot element in Runaway Bride, a by-rote "Will they or won't they" romantic comedy of good cheer. Certainly, it has a less offensive underbelly than Pretty Woman, though it, too, falls victim to Marshall's tendency to idealize everything. (In this case, the psychology of Maggie, a serial heartbreaker, is sized to fit a traditional 'waiting for Mr. Right' story, and granted all the weight of the Hall & Oates song "Maneater," which plays over an introductory scene.) It's also too long by several minutes, and, as usual, Gere looks like he's passing a stone whenever he cracks a joke.

The path most taken by films of this nature leads to hip and horny grandmas, equally sex-crazed yokels, skilled craftswomen, and junior league softball games in sun-dappled fields: forgettable but not disposable, Runaway Bride either suffers from overfamiliarity or succeeds because of it. I was won over its machine-tooled pleasantness, and besides, any film that features U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" prominently on the soundtrack can't be all bad.

At home, one can't help but observe Runaway Bride through rose-coloured glasses, thanks to Paramount's dazzling DVD presentation. The anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) transfer is flawless; spanning two layers, the image boasts [superlative] contrast, [superlative] chroma, and [superlative] shadow detail. Even downconverted for 4:3 TVs, Stuart Dryburgh's lensing does not suffer.

The DD 5.1 audio is your standard nuts-and-bolts laugh-movie mix, with music and not much more happening in the surrounds and an almost complete absence of low end. Still, the sound is crystal clear, and better than just plain stereo. English and French Dolby Surround tracks are also included, a Paramount norm.

Garry Marshall provides a play-by-play commentary, light on craft and heavy on plot synopsis, yet he's such an entertaining orator, I found myself disinclined to turn him off. We also get the theatrical trailer (1.85:1) and a video for the Dixie Chicks' horrendous "Ready to Run."-Bill Chambers