RUNNING OUT

US, 1983, 100 minutes, Colour.
Deborah Raffin, Tony Bill.
Directed by Robert Day.

Running Out is one of the many American telemovies focussing well on social themes. This plot seems to have been influenced by the success of Kramer vs Kramer. It shows a New York father bringing up his daughter, his young wife ran out when the daughter was four months. Tony Bill is good as the solemn but loving father. Deborah Raffin brings culture and charm to her role as the mother who ran away. There is also the new woman in the father's life, his own father as well as the portrait of the daughter.

The movie is set in New York, has the atmosphere of the city, the markets, the apartments, as well as schools and the plusher side of big business. The film draws the characters well, creates emotional situations and handles them without undue sentimentality. This means insight into the characters, the hurts, the loves and hates - and shows the possibility of some resolution, even if not perfect.

1. An effective telemovie? Portrait of characters? Situations? Broken families? The influence of Kramer vs Kramer?

2. The world of New York, ordinary and affluent? The film as a piece of Americana? The musical score - especially the violin pieces?

3. The title and audience expectations? Judgments about the behaviour of characters?

4. The father and daughter: the daughter's age, her relationship with her father, home life, school, her skill with the violin? The new women in her father's life, her relating well to him, her growing up? The quality of her father's care? Audience judgment on the unseen mother and her running out?

5. The mother: seeing her return to New York, fashionable, the translator, the plush hotel? The phone call and her hanging up? Meeting her daughter and bluntly telling her who she was? Her daughter's running away? Fear? The contact, meeting with her husband, the clashes? The meal, reliving the past, her explanations of why she did as she did: her age, pregnancy, fear, the marriage, the demands of her husband, running away, no contact? Her subsequent success? Her asking permission for the day with her daughter, sharing, talking, explaining? The bond between the two? The concert, her being busy, arriving at the end, her gift, the daughter running away? her hurt, going to the airport, the reconciliation at the airport? A future?

6. The father, his past, his relationship with his wife, insensitivity, his womanising? Managing, his relationship with his father, girlfriend? His clash with her and the break, his trying to apologise? His love for his daughter, her not telling him about her mother, his harshness? The contact with his wife, the talking through the situation? The reconciliation and the proposal with his girlfriend? The concert? The airport?

7. The little girl in herself, her life, violin skills, practice, not knowing her mother, telling the girlfriend, her father's reaction? Her meeting her mother, sharing with her? The visit to the grandfather and playing for him? The concert, her disappointment? The reckless driving with her young friend to the airport?

8. The girlfriend, love, her relationship with the little girl, hearing her confidences, hurt by her boyfriend, the proposal?

9. The glimpse of the world of business and the affluent life?

10. The grandfather, criticising the fruit stall and the marketer, his illness, the violin-playing, stories?

11. Contemporary situations and characters, insights, emotions - and possibilities?