If you saw Aneesh Chaganty’s previous film, Searching, you probably remember it. It starred John Cho as a father searching for his missing daughter and the entire movie took place on screens: laptops, cellphones, surveillance cameras, televisions. It was a real knock-out of a thriller and with Run, Chaganty and his writing partner, Sev Ohanian, have crafted another one. This time around, it’s another parent-child relationship at the heart of the movie, but the dynamic is different, to say the least. Chloe, played by Kiera Allen, is a sixteen year old, confined to a wheelchair and plagued with a variety of physical afflictions; she’s isolated and home-schooled by her mother, played by Sarah Paulson. I’m not going to tell you anything else about the movie’s plot because it does have some mystery elements, but I’m not going to lie: it is pretty predictable and you’ve probably already got a fair bit of the movie sketched out in your head just from my one sentence summary and I’m going to just go ahead and tell you that you’re right, because I’m sure you are. There is at least one twist that I didn’t see coming, but for the most part, it is what you expect it to be. And, unlike Searching, it’s really not formally daring or surprising at all. But it’s still super-good. Because what you have here is a genre piece that knows what it is and has fairly modest ambitions and clocks in at a brief ninety minutes (including credits). The script is tight and doesn’t waste a second of your time and Chaganty knows how to build tension in an entertaining way. And those two lead performances are phenomenal. Kiera Allen, like her character, uses a wheelchair in her day to day life and the natural ease she has with the physical side of her performance really makes you know that; thank God the filmmakers didn’t cast a “name” actor who had never been in a wheelchair before; Allen gives the role depth just by her state of being. And it’s a solid, charismatic performance, one that can hold the screen next to Sarah Paulson, which is kind of remarkable given that this is Allen’s feature debut. Paulson is, of course, magnetic and brilliant. She’s Sarah Paulson; you know what she can do and she shows up and does it. Also, watch for Pat Healy, always a pleasure, in a small cameo. I responded to this movie really positively; like I said, the ambitions are modest, but I like that sometimes, and it’s entertaining and just an all around fun thrill-ride. I’m basically fine with Chaganty and Ohanian churning out fun thrillers like this for their whole careers at this point; they just know how to do it better than most and I’m a guy who loves a good thriller. If he stays in this lane, Chaganty may never win an Oscar, but am I going to watch every movie he puts out for the next twenty years? You bet I am and you should too. 4 stars.
tl;dr – endearing thriller has modest ambitions, but succeeds at them, thanks to a brisk pace and two great lead performances; predictable, but entertaining & so fun that I don’t care. 4 stars.