39 romantic male characters we’d love to date

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Ike Graham (Runaway Bride)

Richard Gere and Julia Roberts have proven themselves time and time as a sure fire way to make money in your romantic comedy. They have great chemistry and are great to watch on screen together. With Runaway Bride, it wasn’t like they were trying to recreate the magic they had on Pretty Woman. It was entirely different and that’s what makes Ike one of the great romantic characters out there.

A jaded journalist who goes to investigate Maggie Carpenter, he ends up falling in love with this woman. She left three grooms at the alter and, spoiler alert, she leaves Ike too but it ends up working out in the end.

The movie is great because it shows a different side to the Gere/Roberts dynamic without pushing it. It doesn’t try and sell itself as Pretty Woman 2 and that really is something special. That and who doesn’t love a movie where the guy goes in judging the woman from the beginning to ending up in love with her at the end? It’s very early 2000s before this kind of thing wouldn’t fly (nowadays the roles would be reversed) but there is still something sweet about Ike.

He still tries and that’s what really counts in the end.