A high-powered attorney must race through London to save her abducted son while following cryptic commands from a mysterious caller.
Chuck says:
You gotta give it to Gal Gadot. She can run. And do so in a variety of ways. If you need her to run with joy, she’ on it. If she needs to run with desperation, no one does it better. Throw in being able to commit this act in a dramatic fashion, as if exhausted or with anger, the actress has it covered. If nothing else, she’s a runner for all seasons, emotions and intents. Were there an Oscar category for Best Running Performance in a Film, she’d be the frontrunner (<See what I did there?) every year.
Miss Gadot’s range in this particular dramatic filed is on full display in – you guessed it – “The Runner,” a ticking clock movie that’s as short on logic as it is with its running time, which, clocking in at 85 minutes, is one of its biggest selling points. Though ridiculous, the movie does have its moments, many of them supplied by its star who brings a conviction to her role it doesn’t deserve, her display of determination in all situations, commendable and at times compelling.
The actress is Maia, a lawyer for a high-profile firm who’s prosecuting an individual so powerful, the star witness has to be kept in hiding for his own safety. (Just who is being tried and why is kept conveniently vague.) However, before she sets out for her big day in court, she goes through her morning routine which includes sending her son, Noah (Rory Wilmot) off to school. Oh, and also going on her morning run.
It’s during her sprint through London’s parks that she gets a phone call. An ominous, anonymous voice (Damien Lewis) informs her that her son has been taken and in order to get him back, she needs to kill that hard-to-find star witness. And she has to do so in a little under two hours as he’s given Noah, who happens to be diabetic, an extra shot of insulin. Now in a coma, the little guy will slip away for good if she doesn’t get there in time to administer a shot that will reverse this process. She’ll get her son’s location, once she carries out the killing.
However, before that can happen, she needs to run from the outskirts of London to the downtown hotel where her would-be victim is located, our unseen villain wanting to keep her occupied and trackable all the way. Credit the film for tapping into the paranoia du jour regarding our dependence on technology, its pervasiveness and its disturbing intrusiveness. Her nemesis has access to every piece of information on Maia’s life as well as all personal information on her laptop and any other devices. Seeing her most intimate secrets used against her can’t help but give the viewer pause, knowing how easy it could be to be placed in her shoes.
Equally effective is the movie’s use of Hitchcock’s oft-used theme of the falsely accused innocent person on the run. As she traipses across London, our heroine is forced to commit a variety of illegal acts in order to alert authorities, the police in hot pursuit. The sense of frustration and injustice she feels is relatable.
The revelation of a secret Maia is hiding is a shocker and deserves a much better film built around it. However, once we get to the climax and a flashback reveals the many actions that took place to pull it off, it stretches the film’s logic to the breaking point. Yes, “The Runner” is nothing but a piece of escapism, but it sprints past common sense to its detriment.
2 Stars
