Finally, I sat down and watched "The Runner" , Gal Gadot's latest thriller on Prime Video and who on earth could ask for a better kickoff than one of my favorite stars? I had no high hopes. A movie I thought was another "mom on a mission" type movie, Yet another trailer that has more to offer than the movie, I was wrong, and I'm pleased to say so.
It's setup is straightforward, in fact, too easy, Maia Marten is a formidable London lawyer, a woman who jogs before her day begins, But one of those runs turns very different when an unknown voice calls her phone and tells her, quietly, that her son has been abduced, The rules are simple, if you don't move, or do exactly what the Caller says, or tell anyone, or does not tell anyone, her son dies, that's it, that's the heart of the movie and that's all they need.
The first thing I noticed is that it's extremely tactile, this isn't a movie that has tension in dialogue and clever twist dropped in a boardroom, It focuses on Maia's legs, breath, the way London itself becomes an obstacle course she can't avoid, It's as if Kevin Macdonald's unflagging energy is the same he's known for, and you can feel it a mile from here, but people keep saying it's like Speed, and I understand it's like, "don't stop or else," but it's about a person's own body being the thing that's being attacked, not a bus, not a machine.
I wasn't sure I would have seen this movie the same way if it had been done by someone else, but not Gal Gadot.... Wonder Woman, we know her as bigger than life, but here she plays her fear well. Real fear, the type that makes a mother do things that she would never have thought she could do, and Damian Lewis as the Caller is just enough of an unsettling, you never look him directly in the eye, you feel him in each and every scene, he's pulling strings somewhere just out of reach, It's a difficult thing to do, to frighten without being right there, but he does.
To be honest, the plot doesn't revolutionize anything, It's one of those tales you've heard before, A simple person thrust into a desperate situation, where good and evil become mixed, and a clock that won't stop ticking, but The Runner does very well at the task of living by its own tenets, does not pretend to be smarter than it is. It has a clear idea of the type of film it's meant to be and it delivers it with a confidence, some pacing and just enough emotional heft to keep you wanting more than just the action.
At the end of the movie, I noticed I had not checked my phone for a single time, Not once, Competing with all the distractions I could think of, sitting right in my pocket for some two hour thriller and that's saying a lot.
Did I like it? Yes , genuinely, unapologetically, yes, It will not be awarded any prizes, and it does not seek to be, it's a type of movie that does what it's supposed to, makes you runs alongside Maia, pumps you up on the heart-rate, keeps you guessing until the end of the last minute, sometimes, it's just what you're looking for for a goody night, good chase sometimes is enough.
Rating: 90/100
