Title – Run (2020)

Director – Aneesh Chaganty (Searching)

Cast – Kiera Allen, Sarah Paulson, Pat Healy

Plot – Wheelchair and home-bound teenager Chloe Sherman (Allen) begins to suspect her mother Diane (Paulson) may not have her best interests at heart as she looks to find a new home at college and come to terms with her various ailments.

“This is gonna sound very strange”

Review by Eddie on 13/04/2021

Following the surprise success of his first feature film, the internet based Searching, up and coming director Aneesh Chaganty returns to the thriller genre for his second feature effort Run, a Sarah Paulson starring event picture that recently set Hulu streaming records in the United States when it premiered on the service in late November of 2020.

A familiar film in many ways that is made to appear fresher thanks to its casting of wheelchair using actress Kiera Allen, who stars as the films main protagonist Chloe Sherman, Run isn’t as inventive or effective as Chaganty’s first effort behind the camera but it once more showcases a director looking at doing things differently in a landscape where the easy option is often taken.

Unable to provide much in the way of shock or unforeseen twists and feelings that at times the story at the heart of the tale is leaning too far into the unbelievable, Run see’s poor old Chloe discovering that her seemingly loving mother may in fact not be the parental caregiver that she had thought she was as Sarah Paulson’s wide-eyed Diane starts displaying cracks in her outward façade and in her motivations.

Paulson is effective as usual as Diane, even if she is prone to over play some moments in the film (yelling at some poor pharmacy customers, Paulson finds herself in one of the years more unintentionally hilarious scenes) while Allen delivers a career making turn as Chloe who is absolutely someone we as an audience want to see succeed as we go along her journey with her, one that will make her question her entire life and diagnosis up until this point in time.

Working best in its quieter moments, especially in its early scenes that have an ominous and foreboding sense of dread and despair about them, it’s a shame Run starts too lose steam in its latter section as a feeling as though a majority of its best moments have already come to fruition and the film is merely playing out a set of more predictable moments that will surprise no one who has ever seen a film of this ilk before.

Final Say – 

A solid if unspectacular sophomore effort from Chaganty that can’t hide its generic center behind the inventive casting and lead character development, Run ends up being totally watchable but far from memorable.

2 1/2 glasses of wine out of 5