Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Run & Jump





In Steph Green's Irish import "Run & Jump," Vanetia Casey (Maxine Peake) brings her husband Conor (Edward Macliam - now there's a UK name) home from the hospital after an unexpected stroke from which he will never fully recover.


In order to double her aid checks from the state, she's agreed to allow the American doctor Ted Fielding (Will Forte) to live with them for two months and record Conor virtually 24/7. Ted's Mr. Clinical and Detached at first, but might he warm up at some point and roll a joint with Mrs. Casey? I'll give you one guess. Same with their son, Lenny (Brendan Morris), a swimmer who's bullied at school and called gay names. Might he pop one too many of Dad's pills and try something drastic? What do you think? 

I didn't believe any of these characters as real people. "Run & Jump" oscillates between artificially overheated drama and manufactured whimsy, down to the very last scene. Too often, you think of Green, "He wouldn't really be that obvious, would he? Yup, apparently he would." His movie's as corned as Irish beef.

No comments:

Post a Comment