À bout de course

I saw this movie when it was first released on video and was astounded that it was not nominated for Best Picture over lesser fare like Working Girl. I was 14 at the time and the conclusion of the movie was the first time I ever cried while watching a film. It's been 16 years and only four other movies have had that affect on me (Shadowlands, Philadelphia, In America, Return of the King). Watching it with my wife tonight (her first time seeing it) and I still cried at the conclusion.

This movie, more than any other, even Stand By Me, makes me miss the adult actor that River Phoenix might have become. We have been lucky enough to see the fine actors that Sean Penn, Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise have become, but River might have

surpassed them all. He most assuredly had the potential.

I have seen thousands of movies now, have devoted myself to watching every film by 100 great directors (even the horrible ones) and Sidney Lumet has rewarded me as I have re-watched such classics as Network, 12 Angry Men and Serpico, but this might be his best film. Christine Lahti's performance is letter on perfect and she should have won the Oscar (wasn't nominated). I am glad the Academy got the two most important nominations correct: River and the screenplay.

This is a perfect movie for teens as they can understand the growing pains that River's character is going through and a perfect movie for adults as well, as they can understand what is threatening to tear the family apart.

This is a fantastic movie. Definitely one of the 5 best I've seen in recent memory. Someone that wrote a review here felt that the two parents are placed upon a pedestal by the film makers, but I don't think this is the case at all. They are accountable for their actions and know what they did was wrong. They have to pay for their actions throughout their lives and will likely turn themselves in as soon as they can be assured that their kids will be safe. The kids are the ones I feel sorry for, not the parents.

I think the main point of the movie is to make people aware of how the actions/decisions they make can hurt other people, including themselves. People often make rash decisions without thinking about the long term consequences their actions cause for themselves and other people.

Running on Empty

First of all, what a great performance by River Phoenix. In fact, there are smart, convincing, warm performances by all the main cast. At first you might feel this is a movie about a couple on the lam for a long-ago crime, and that they happened to have two kids. But really the opening of the movie, an inside view from Phoenix's character's situation, makes clear that he is the start, and the fulcrum, around which the rest of the characters swing. So the movie ends up being an interpersonal drama, and you sympathize with everyone, even if they have done a "bad" thing. This is open to your judgement, for sure...a 1960s radical sentiment on the part of the left leaning director, Syndey Lumet, who had the early uber-classic "12 Angry Men" as well as "Serpico" and many others. It was Lumet who drew me to the film, but it was Phoenix who stole the show (and who breaks your heart knowing how young he committed suicide). Look for the kind of classic filming and editing you'd expect from this well-schooled director. It's a warm film, and it avoids pretentiousness and artifice, turning instead to the innate abilities of the actors, including a young Marth Plimpton. Plimpton is wonderful, and she is given some classic lines, funny and perceptive just as you'd expect this kind of girl to be. (Plimpton was in another movie with Phoenix, "The Mosquito Coast," two years earlier.) So watch this, for sure. It was nominated for a ton of awards, and overcomes what seems to be a contrived, tightly focussed impossibility of a plot and makes it work. Very well!

I have dozens of movies on videotape, but if I could only keep one, Running on Empty would be it. I've lost count how many times I've watched it. It works on every level. Emotionally, you cannot help caring about the characters, all of them. The premise, living "underground" in ordinary American suburbia, is brilliant and instantly engaging. The story, coming of age on the lam, flows effortlessly, with hardly a slow spot, and keeps me engaged, even after umpteen viewings. The romance, of love and loss and dedication, brings a tear every time, even just thinking about the birthday party as I write this.

Plus -- I was a 'red diaper baby' who became a conservative republican 35 years ago, and this film touches every button of my past. A lot of those reds were, in person, truly decent people, just a bit deranged and extremely delusional and dogmatic, all of which Judd Hirsch conveys with perfect pitch. No special FX, pretty tame action (mostly involving music and dancing), only six main characters, but a great entertaining and inspirational film.

Rated 9.9 out of 10, in case something better ever comes along.

P.S. I just got the DVD. Even better than the tape. Elsewhere I have read complaints about its technical quality, but I can see nothing wrong with it.

I am not gonna say too much, but this is one of the best movies ever made, River Phoenix, deserved the award a lot more than Kevin Kline. Maybe River was young and they thought he will have many other chances to do it, unfortunately you never know and now River is no longer with us. So I think that the members of the Academy should consider this, like when Leo DiCaprio was nominated for Gilbert Grape. Anyway, this is a MUST see movie, it´s definitely a classic!