Today’s quick review: The Runner. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Congressman Colin Pryce (Nicolas Cage) catapults onto the national stage thanks to his impassioned defense of Louisiana and its residents. However, his newfound fame backfires when he’s caught cheating on his wife Deborah (Connie Nielsen). Now Pryce must repair his damaged reputation in order to help lead the cleanup efforts and salvage his planned Senate run.
The Runner is a political drama about an idealistic politician searching for redemption in the wake of a scandal. The movie puts Congressman Pryce’s principles to the test during the worst crisis of his career, forcing him to choose between the people of Louisiana and his own future in poitics. The Runner is a case study about the pressures and compromises of politics, but it lacks the gripping plot or emotional resonance to be an effective story.
The Runner’s chief failing is that it’s a dry watch. The centerpiece of the film is the character of Colin Pryce, and to the film’s credit, it does a reasonable job of capturing his earnest ideals and his human weaknesses. But the work it puts into Pryce never translates into effective drama. For all his suffering, Pryce only ever comes across as mildly sympathetic, while the stakes are oddly low given the story’s significant political backdrop.
As such, The Runner will primarily appeal to viewers who are interested in the political process for its own sake, and even these will find its plot too shallow to get much enjoyment from. The Runner has decent character work and serves as an unusually believable look into the world of politics, but its ideas never cash out into dramatic tension or pathos. Those hoping for a deep, insightful, or moving story should give it a pass.
For a thriller that puts Nicolas Cage on the opposite side of the moral spectrum, try Snake Eyes. For a farther-reaching look at the dark side of the oil industry, try Syriana. For a more engrossing look at a real-world political crisis, try Magin Call or The Big Short. For a thriller about a politician coping with a similar scandal, try State of Play.
4.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for an interesting moral conundrum without the heart to make it work.