MPAA Rating: PG-13/ Genre: Psychological Thriller/ Stars: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Pat Healy, Sara Sohn, Sharon Bajer; Voice of: Tony Revolori/Runtime: 90 minutes
They say that the love of a mother is one of the most powerfully positive forces in the entire universe. However, what if that love not only had a hint of an ominous vibe to it, but was also potentially withholding secrets from you that, if discovered, would shatter your life as you had known it up to that point in time? Suffice it to say that it was this question that movie goers got an answer to all the way back in that now-infamous year known as 2020 in the form of a slice of suspense cinema known as Run and, having seen the final product, I can now say that the answers this movie posits to us are actually fairly chilling. Sure you may be able to guess where the film is planning to go at certain points in time and thus that might dampen your level of enjoyment for the overall movie. However, the work done behind the camera is fairly brilliant and the work conducted by our pair of female leads in their respective roles in front of the camera is absolutely electric. Suffice it to say that Run might not be by any stretch of the imagination a perfect film in any sense of the word, but trust me when I say that it is also a lot better than it could have been as well to say nothing of a wonderful example of that distinct subcategory of movie magic known as “the rainy day thriller” that you will enjoy time and time again.
The plot is as follows: So, at the beginning of our riveting saga, we are quickly introduced to a woman by the name of Diane Sherman. Miss Sherman, we are quickly able to pick up on, is a newly christened member of that known sorority known as motherhood who is waiting from her hospital bed to take part in one of the more iconic early moments of being a parent. Namely the moment when the parent is actually able to take their child who has just been newly brought into this world and hold them in their arms for the very first time. Tragically, we see that when the team of doctors give her this chance to do this let alone see her daughter, they also show up with some horrific news as well. Namely that her newborn has a collection of calamitous issues to her name from asthma and diabetes all the way to the fact that she is paralyzed and will most likely be in a wheelchair the rest of her life. Moving ahead a solid 17 years and we see that this revelation has managed to completely and utterly remold Dane let alone her stance as a parent. Perhaps this is why we see that this has resulted in her helicopter parent the now-wheelchair bound Chloe from how cruel and depression the world can be in any way she possibly can. However, we see that as Chloe has gotten older, she also has expressed her desire (much like a lot of other young adults are known for doing) to see more of the outside world. A desire she has tried her best to fulfill courtesy of applying to universities that, if they chose to accept her, would give her the chance to maybe be a “normal” young person for the first time. Yet, despite the fact that her mom repeatedly tells her she is by no means normal, we see that mysterious things start to occur which seriously make her begin questioning if what her mom’s telling her is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Suffice it to say that it isn’t long before Chloe’s investigation into the matter starts to not only reveal secrets that have been buried for a long time, but also places her on a collision course with her seemingly loving and caring mom who, the more she discovers, the more she has started to think may or may entirely have her best interests in mind……
Now I’m not going to lie to you dear reader: even based on that as deliberately vague as humanely possible synopsis above, I would not be surprised in the least if you were able to figure out at least some of the possible narrative roads that this slice of cinema is planning to have you embark down. In all fairness though, at least it manages to traverse these distinct roads in a manner that is both quite engaging as well as genuinely suspenseful. Indeed, film helmer Aneesh Chaganty and his co-scribe on this, one Sev Ohanian, have managed to conjure up a brilliant idea for this slice of cinema’s narrative in the form of a genuinely bleak and ominous coming of age saga that finds itself transforming into a paranoia-laced thrill ride. On top of that, we see that the work done by the editing department is enjoyably unforgiving as well as pointed. Something incidentally that we are able to witness right from the word go courtesy of a rivetingly well-done showcase of what constitutes as an “ordinary day” in the life of our heroine. Yet even as this slice of cinema moves forward from there and the thriller components begin to make their presence known, the work from the editing department just gets more and more enjoyable especially when it is merged together with this slice of cinema’s engagingly kinetic and lively musical accompaniment which feels like a wonderfully loving throwback to the one Bernard Herrmann came up with Psycho all the way back in 1960. Yet when I was told that the majority of the people behind these departments also had previously come together and collaborated on another insidiously clever film known as Searching from 2018, I really wasn’t all that surprised to tell you the truth. Yet whereas that slice of cinema only utilized small parts to show us a bigger picture, the team is still able to show with this film that they can work on a larger scale and succeed brilliantly. Indeed, perhaps the key example of this is a moment in the middle of the film where we see our heroine have to utilize both her intellect as well as the strength of her upper body to get out a locked room in such a manner that I’d swear I saw on an episode of MacGyver once. More than anything however, it is the blend of tragic and ominous in the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of this film that aids it in being as riveting as it turns out to be. Indeed, the creative team behind the camera do a wonderful job of immersing us in a, for all intents and purposes, good albeit testy at moments bond that has only a hint of something…. off to it only to then begin peeling back layers in order to show you just how dark this relationship truly is with the defining touch being a conclusion that is both twisted yet also oddly satisfying all rolled into one.
Now in terms of performances, it should be noted that, by and large, this slice of cinema is one that is very much a two-handed affair and if either of those two performances didn’t match up to the other one in terms of quality and intensity it would instantly make this film a lot less riveting. Fortunately, that is most certainly not the case. Indeed, as the passively aggressively deranged and heinous mother at the center of this insanity-fueled suspense, Paulson proves to be a wonderfully intense presence in this whilst also managing to completely and utterly fine tune the deranged characterization that she has done phenomenally well in such shows as Ratched and the 5th season of American Horror Story, but also thankfully never once permitting her performance on display here to ever make way into either being something we’ve seen a million times before and/or a parody. Yet despite the fact that this woman is very much unhinged, with the film doing a wonderful job of slowly but surely peeling back the layers of just how deranged she is rather than all at once near the end, the creative team behind the camera also do a wonderful job of gifting Paulson with the room to make her way through this character’s trauma-fueled past and give us a fairly persuasive, albeit still unhinged, reason for why she is so crazed in the here and now of the film. Suffice it to say that it is by no means an easy job to get a movie goer actually feel bad to some degree for a woman who goes as far as the one in this film manages to, but by darn if Paulson didn’t just manage to pull it off in this. Yet, as great as Paulson manages to be in this slice of cinema, it is very much Kiera Allen who, pardon the ironic pun here please, manages to run away with this film and with her first time at bat deliver a truly potent both in terms of physically as well as psychologically performance. Indeed, Allen does a wonderful job of utilizing her real-life disability for this character and in the process manages to present for us a character that is very much three-dimensional rather than one that is just defined by her disability. On top of that, we see that the creative team behind the camera does a wonderful job of both having Allen take part in some truly incredible moments of physical strength that she shows skill in fulfilling as well as being equally as gifted at showcasing for us the character of Chloe’s both befuddlement as well as anxiety in regard to the situation she is an unwilling part of. Indeed, Chloe may aspire to be the daughter her mother wants her to be, but she is also at the same time having to deal with the fact that she is becoming more and more rattled and shook to the core as she is learning more of the fibs that she has been fed pretty much her whole life. Suffice it to say that Allen’s riveting performance in this is a genuine triumph and I hope that greater things lay ahead of her in the world of movie magic.
All in all so I’m not going to lie dear reader: I know it has already come and gone this year, but honestly there is a pretty decent size part of me that desperately wants me to recommend this slice of cinema to you to watch with your mom on Mother’s Day. Not because I’m a terrible human or because I don’t love my mother or the fact that she gets her own special day all to herself. Rather, it is because this is EXACTLY the kind of movie that I would watch with my own mom on Mother’s Day (then again though I did watch Misery and Silence of the Lambs for the first time with my mom so we might have unique viewing preferences as compared to the majority of you out there dear readers). Jokes and snarky comments aside however dear reader, I must confess I did actually really enjoy this slice of cinema. Indeed, a lot of the various twists and curves that this distinct narrative possesses might be seen from a mile away fairly early on in this film’s 90-minute, including credits, runtime to say nothing of the fact that there will be quite a few of you out there who will be able to easily see just where the creative team behind the camera is aiming to take this distinct narrative. At the same time however, the various thrilling moments that the team behind the camera manages to construct for us in this slice of cinema are so riveting and astonishing that you can’t help, but find yourself on the edge of your seat fairly consistently throughout. Thus, when you also add into the mix a pair of intense and unnervingly well-done performances from both Sarah Paulson as well as Kiera Allen, I think it is safe to say that the slice of cinema Run is a genuinely suspenseful to say nothing of lively cinematic voyage from beginning to end as well as a wonderful exercise in how to make a fairly good entry in terms of lean and mean cinematic suspense. Make of that what thou will dear reader. On a scale of 1-5 I give Run “2020” a solid 3.5 out of 5.
