RUN
Canada, 2020, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Sarah Sohn, Pat Healey.
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty.
Quite an amount of the emotion in this drama. It opens with a mother giving birth, the death of the child after two hours, the mother’s grief.
And then the narrative moves on 17 years, mother and daughter, the daughter severely disabled, unable to walk, confined to her wheelchair, a chairlift in the house for her, her mother ever attentive, and the expected rounds of medication.
The mother is played by the versatile actress, Sarah Paulson. While she shows a lot of sweetness and light as the ever-devoted mother, one wonders whether Sarah Paulson ever plays this kind of sweet role. Of course, she does not, but that is part of the dramatic unfolding of the story. The daughter is played by model and actress, Kiera Allen, introduced in this film. It is a strong role for her, the daughter, Chloe, 17, in many ways confined by her disabilities and wheelchair, but with ambitions to go to college. There are quite a number of home scenes showing the bond between mother and daughter, meal scenes, Chloe and her study in her room, eager for the mail to arrive with the results of her college application.
But, audiences who have seen the trailer or the aids, know that it is going to become something of a horror film. What is the relationship between mother and daughter?
When Chloe becomes wary of some of the tablets her mother is giving her, her mother’s name on the prescription and what tablets contain, she ventures out on some investigations which lead to gradual revelation is, Chloe escaping from the house, perhaps the “run� of the title.
The story becomes more and more tense, the behaviour of the mother more erratic, the daughter on the defensive – and, confined to a basement, where she discovers the back story of her mother, of the birth of her daughter, what is happening. And some flashbacks to the hospital and the birth of the baby.
This kind of tense story, home imprisonment, has been told in various forms before (there are strong parallels between Run and the Octavia Spencer horror story, Ma.) But, with a strong cast and continued tension in the latter part of the film, a satisfying version of this genre.
1. The title? For Diane and her initial running with the baby? For Chloe and the threat from Diane?
2. Canadian production and settings, the city, the hospital and awards, home, the medical equipment for Chloe, the interiors? The town, the streets, shops, cinema, pharmacy? The musical score?
3. The film as a drama, the initial pathos, the concern about the disabled? Turning into a horror film?
4. Diane, the hospital, giving birth, the wheelchair, going to view her baby, the dead baby? The transition to 17 years later?
5. The relationship between Diane and Chloe, at home, the bond, love, mother-daughter, meals, physical care? Diane as the absolutely devoted mother, giving her life for her daughter? Her presence at the Mothercare discussion, the strange reaction, that Chloe would have all the opportunities that she did not?
6. Chloe, 17, study, personality, ambitions to go to college, the applications, eagerly waiting the mail? With her mother, the meals, the discussions, her room, studying abilities, the chairlift, the medication?
7. The seemingly ideal situation? Chloe and her snooping? The discovery of the tablets with Diane’s name? Her suspicions, wanting to investigate, the Wi-Fi? going off, Diane watering the garden, Chloe and the phone calls, the different reactions, her frustrations? Suggesting that they go to the cinema? Her leaving, going to the pharmacy, the long queue, the pharmacist, the discussions, the pills for numbing animals? Diane arriving, the confrontation in the pharmacy?
8. Chloe in her room, the door locked, the door barred? Her efforts in climbing out the window, along the roof, getting out? In the chair, on the road, the mailman and his almost hitting her? His help? Diane in the car? Diane injecting the mailman and taking his body home and burying it? Injecting Chloe?
9. The revelation of the truth, Chloe and the basement, the documents, the newspapers? Her being abducted? Diane stealing the baby and vanishing?
10. Chloe, her challenging Diane, swallowing the concoction? The gun? The struggle, Diane being shot? Chloe being saved? The medicos?
11. The appropriate ending? The value of the prologue? Seven years later? Chloe and her life, family? And the visit to Diane in the hospital, Diane and her desperate state, in bed? And Chloe administering the numbing drug?
