Run is one of those movies that are easy to figure out, especially if you’re aware of Munchausen by proxy and have seen Sharp Objects or The Act. But it holds you glued to the screen, thanks to the tension built up by director Aneesh Chaganty and his co-writer, Sev Ohanian, as well as the performance of the two leads.
Diane (Sarah Paulson) looks on at her newborn premature baby being held under intensive care. As her features vacillate between hope, anxiety and despair, we cut away to decades later, with Diane taking care of her daughter, Chloe (Kiera Allen) who suffers from five different conditions and is wheelchair-bound. Chloe is confined to a daily, monotonous routine of getting up, taking medication, homeschooling, eating the organic food prepared from vegetables grown in her backyard and going to sleep. She is waiting for the acceptance letter from University of Washington, looking forward to spreading her wings and getting some much needed independence. It’s not that she hates her mother, it’s just that she’s been together with her since she was born and she hasn’t really socialized in the meanwhile. However, her life gets thrown into a disarray as she discovers that one of the medicines she’s taking may not be what it appears to be.
American Horror Story alumni Sarah Paulson has made a career out of playing unhinged characters teetering on the edge. Her facial expressions are a big part of what makes her performance so effective, and she plays the role of the manipulative, gaslighting mother very well. Her face switches effortlessly between anxiety, warmth and anger, amping up the tension of the narrative.
This is Kiera Allen’s first role, and she fully commits to it. She uses a wheelchair in real life, and the scenes where she has to drag herself across floors and roofs and fall over stairs feel especially tense and terrifying.
The action sequences are also well done, woven with enough tension and inventiveness that you never quite know what’s going to happen next. There are some contrivances that prevent Chloe from escaping to safety, but these are mostly forgivable in the context of the movie.
Run is one of those movies that fall apart when scrutinized with fridge logic. For instance, if Chloe is so smart, why has it never bothered her before that her mother never let her have any friends? Furthermore, the film chooses to explain Diane’s behavior away with the most predictable explanation. When I was watching the film with my father, he made a point that seemed too obvious to be true. Of course, that’s what ended up happening in the film.
Run benefits from its short runtime, pacing it’s narrative with just the right amount of tension and denouement.
The movie ends in a way that invokes dramatic irony (and also schadenfreude). Since its release, the film has become the most watched original film on Hulu, garnering praise from the likes of Stephen King. If you’re in for a tense thriller with an unconventional protagonist, then Run just might be the movie for you.