Review: Running on Empty

Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti play a pair of former student radicals on the run for fifteen years after they bombed a University lab that was apparently making napalm. Their actions resulted in a janitor’s blindness. They have two kids, high schooler River Phoenix, and the much younger Jonas Abry, whom they had during their period on the lam. Due to Hirsch’s paranoia, they rarely stay in one town very long and frequently change identities. If Dad says they gotta go, they gotta go, no ifs ands or buts. This could cause a problem when the nearly graduating Phoenix is encouraged by a music teacher (Ed Crowley) to attend Julliard due to his gift with the piano. He is also dating said teacher’s rebellious daughter, played by Martha Plimpton. To accept this offer, Phoenix would have to leave the fold, and probably never see his family again. This would be impossible for Hirsch to accept (he sees the family as an unbreakable unit), but Lahti, a former music student with unfulfilled potential herself, knows how Phoenix feels. Steven Hill plays Lahti’s estranged father, and L.M. Kit Carson (who looks alarmingly like the late Richard Lynch to me) is a former radical associate turned wannabe bank robber.

 

This 1988 Sidney Lumet drama isn’t one of his classic films (“12 Angry Men”, “Serpico”, “Network”, “Dog Day Afternoon”, “The Hill”, “The Offence”), and to be honest, the plot truly is movie-of-the-week stuff (in fact, Lahti and Hirsch have indeed been frequent presences on TV over the years). I mean, the ‘uh...my school records got lost in this great big convenient plot contrivance...er...fire’ cliché is as old as the hills, and pure TV hokum not worthy of inclusion in a film. But Lumet, backed by an excellent cast makes the script by Naomi Foner (whose greatest creations to this day are children Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal) seem honest and believable for the most part. Hirsch and especially Lahti (one of the most underrated actors ever, if you ask me) are believably cast as former hippie radicals who have had to live ever since with the consequences of the actions taken in their irresponsible, reactionary youth. An Academy Award-nominated Phoenix is spot-on in a really choice role for him, playing into his sensitivity and intelligence, but also to an extent his unorthodox family upbringing probably gave him something to turn to here. Along with young Jonas Abry, they make for a very convincing, slightly offbeat family and that’s the best thing about the whole film.

 

Martha Plimpton and Steven Hill also make their moments count, with Plimpton a great match for Phoenix (Not surprising, they were also paired in “The Mosquito Coast” and Plimpton would also be paired with River’s brother, the soon-to-be Joaquin- Leif- Phoenix in “Parenthood” as her on-screen brother). Hirsch and Lahti for me, though, are the keys, because their characters are potentially selfish and unlikeable. But thanks to their expert performances and Lahti’s innate warmness and empathy (just watch the underrated “Whose Life is it Anyway?”), you feel you understand their plight and sympathise with them.

 

It’s not a great film, but it’s certainly a sincere and eventually quite emotional one, despite the clichés. An imaginary eleventy billion points off for making James Taylor’s insufferable ‘Fire and Rain’ a big part of the film. Hate that fucking song. Actually, I hate every fucking James Taylor song (Here’s a thought...why not use Jackson Browne’s ‘Running on Empty’? It’s the name of the damn movie, after all!). The themes are worthy, but the story itself seems old hat. Frankly I think the film is a bit overrated, but it’s pretty well-done nonetheless and an easy watch. 

 

Rating: B-