Short of ideas, New York newswriter Richard Gere listens to the tale of a barfly ranting on about a country-town girl (Julia Roberts) who has literally run away three times from the altar and is now engaged again.

When Julia threatens to sue over the ensuing article, Gere loses his job and heads for her home town to get his own back.

Naturally, they fall in love: who will she walk down the aisle with, and will she run back down it?

Despite many of the same actors and technicians, this pleasant affair is hardly another Pretty Woman.

Irritating characters are finally overcome by the romantic nature of the story, but the script is undernourished and has too few moments of genuine fun.

And you wonder what Julia saw in any of these four klutzy guys in the first place.

If she's as quirky and unsure of herself as the story implies then Roberts, hard though she tries, isn't the right actress to play her.

Rita Wilson outdoes her for warmth as Gere's ex-wife.