#74: The Runner (2015)

My name is Ed and when I have seen all the Nicolas Cage films I expect I will be invited to become a professor of cinema at a prestigious university. But I will turn down this invitation, because I will be a rich millionaire thanks to having used one of those films to win the National Lottery. Will it be this one?

My first impression of The Runner was a slightly confusing one, because it opens with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, currently co-starring with Mark Wahlberg in cinemas near you. But the natural disaster is just background detail here, and The Runner is instead about the political and personal disasters of Congressman politician Colin Pryce. The character is, as far as I’m aware, entirely fictional, although the film plays oddly like biopic.

Which is sort of my problem with it: it feels like you’re supposed to be bringing some prior knowledge to it, that it’s offering commentary on something specific. The film’s title refers to Pryce keeps fit by running —but it’s not particularly clear what this has to do with the rest of the film — is there a real US congressman noted for their wicked 5k times? A lot of the plot treads down well-worn paths for political drama — infidelity, corruption but it’s less pointed than it seems to want to be, because it’s hard to see what it’s pointing at. Do I just need to rewatch it after taking a course on the recent political history of Louisiana or something?

It’s a shame, because in other ways it’s a solid little film: Cage is actually rather good as the conflicted Pryce, struggling to align his genuine basic decency with career pragmatism and the usual base personal demons. He apparently spent a lot of time studying tapes of real politicians and it’s certainly a nicely observed performance. Not much to complain about with the rest of the cast, which includes Peter Fonda, Sarah Paulson and Wendell Pierce. But ultimately they can only do so much with The Runner’s fairly limited story, which just can’t go the di… Oh god, shoot me in the head.

If nothing else this is good dry run for when Nic Cage eventually plays the President, which seems kind of inevitable. Fingers crossed it won’t be in a straight-to-DVD Christian movie where he has to save his daughter from an abortionist, but, you know.

THE NUMBERS

11 — The news report at the very start of the film mentions that 11 crew members of the Deepwater Horizon rig are missing. Is it okay to use real life dead people to pick lottery numbers? I mean I used 9–11 so I guess I’m already going to hell.

16 — Pryce has supposedly been sober for 16 years, although he falls off the wagon here. Or gets onto it. However that works.

18 — As the film progresses it becomes clear that local senator Tom Owens is facing an 18-month investigation over corruption, which ends up providing the impetus for Pryce to start making his way back into politics after his ‘fall’.

24 — The film opens with Pryce giving a tearful speech to Congress about the effects of the oil spill on his state. A caption tells us this speech happens on May 24th, 2010. Which is a real date that actually happened.

27 — Pryce’s life unravels when it’s made public that he had an affair with a 27-year-old cheerleading coach. Rude.

37 — When Pryce offers to go for a drink with his publicist, Kate, she tell him he doesn’t need to be burdened by a 37-year-old woman’s midlife crisis. They end up boning. Spoilers.

THE RESULT

Lottery draw: 2167

Date: Wednesday 28 September, 2016

Jackpot: £11,106,204

Draw machine: Lancelot

Ball set: 5

Balls drawn: 19,29,37,41,51,53

Bonus ball: 55

Numbers selected: 11,16,18,24,27,37

Matching balls: 1

Numbers selected (lucky dip): N/A

Matching balls (lucky dip): N/A

Winnings: £0 (£0 to date)

Total Profit/Loss: £-146

1 number. Stupid BP.

NEXT TIME ON NICOLAS CAGE:

Pay The Ghost

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