Review of Running on Empty (1988) by Dawdlingpoet — 21 Nov 2021

This is a crime drama film revolving around an American family, with themes covered including emancipation, independence and family ties. I felt that Danny had a surprising amount of depth about him, as a character, he wasn't especially stereotyped or anything like that, so I felt anyway. I liked that the family seemed totally normal on one level, while also clearly aware of their personal situation and being seemingly quite on the ball about their need to protect their identity and to adapt to the situations they've found themselves in.

Cast wise, River Phoenix played Danny Pope. Phoenix of course died in the early 90s (October 31st 1993, to be precise). He was well regarded for his roles in films such as Stand By Me and My Own Private Idaho. I thought he did quite well in his role, playing a relatively strong minded adolescent, who some believe has his quirks about himself (such as opting in for a cookery class in school) but is also clearly frustrated for being kept out of the limelight. Other cast members include Christine Lahti as Annie Pope, Judd Hirsch as Arthur Pope, Martha Plimption as Lorna Phillips and Steven Hill as Donald Patterson. I felt that Judd Hirsch gave a somewhat memorable performance as the patriarch (father figure), Danny's seemingly tough talking dad, who doesn't always see eye to eye with his spouse. Its clear to see that he says and insists on what he does out of his own concerns and love for his family members and I'd definitely say that this is a thought provoking film, with the themes and the plot in general being quite good - I'm not sure if I've seen many films which cover the exact same ground. I've no doubt I've seen films about people wanting to make a bigger name for themselves, risking things being found out about themselves and so on but to the extent that its the case here? I'm not sure. I felt that the film was well thought out, in terms of a decent amount of character development being present and some well thought out scenes and dialogue. Pace wise, its relatively slow paced, with not a great amount of fast action scenes or special effects and the like, so if your looking for a constant 'visual feast' then you may be disappointed. I reckon this is a better example of a dialogue, character and plot heavy film. If the film featured more wooden performances, then this would easily be turned in to a bland and potentially dire film but I felt that the performances really helped it. I also liked the fact that the viewer is kept in the dark about aspects of the plot until relatively late on in the film - the families background not being made clear until well after the first half hour of the film, for example. There are some clues given, some fairly obvious ones but I thought the family came across as quite intriguing and so I enjoyed watching the film with the plot developing and slowly gathering a better idea as to what led to them being in the situation their in (I won't elaborate any more so as not to provide any (additional?) potential spoilers).

Music wise, there are numerous scenes featuring Danny playing music, obviously as his character has a keen interest/love of playing music. Their pretty light, airy pieces for the most part - I suppose you could argue that they help to make the viewer feel more like the family are just your ordinary neighbours, with nothing obviously out of the blue going on at all, which, of course, isn't the case.

Content wise, this film contains strong language, some mild to moderate violence and discussions of violent activity, a few scenes clearly showing the family in a very tense frame of mind, which may potentially frighten some (younger?) people perhaps and one scene shows a character while drunk. The film carries a 15 rating to reflect this.

I'd recommend this film, as I thought it featured good performances and good characters, good plot development and it was quite thought provoking. It won't suit everyone, being very dialogue heavy and not especially fast paced but it was an interesting and it seemed a well made film, so I'd recommend it due to that.