A sure-fire way to get my eyes to gloss over into abject boredom as my brain goes into low-battery sleep mode is to suggest I watch a political movie. Typically, I avoid political movies like the plague, especially slow-burning dramas that focus on some “issue” or element of current U.S. politics in particular. I’d just rather not.

Which makes this Rotten Tomatoes review of The Runner (2014) seem entirely accurate:

“In spite of a promising premise and a roundly talented cast, The Runner is a disappointing outing to be viewed by only the staunchest of Nicolas Cage completists.”

Since I am a very staunch Nicolas Cage completist, I had to sit through The Runner twice. Once for impressions and twice for notes. Neither time was pleasing.

Now I get to write about it. So here we go.

The World According to The Runner

Who is the “runner”? The runner is Colin Pryce (Nicolas Cage) a local representative (white man) in a predominantly black district of New Orleans (Louisiana?) who has aspirations to make “a run” at a U.S. Senate seat. He’s a “high minded” if a bit smarmy politician who enjoys a good jog in the morning and a good congressional panel in the afternoon. He’s the son of a popular / controversial ex-mayor and politician, Rayne Pryce (Peter Fonda) and married to an equally ambitious and power-hungry lawyer Deborah (Connie Nelson) who really wants him to become a Senator.

Colin has a campaign manager Frank (Wendell Pierce) who wants him to “keep it buttoned up” for the Senate run, and a publicist Kate (Sarah Paulson) whom he secretly fancies, and a political cause to rally around, i.e. the BP Oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. We are supposed to believe that Colin is a principled and idealistic politician: a man who rallies for the people (ie. he is active in getting support for the fishermen and business owners whose livelihood is at risk due to the environmental factors of the spill) and one who can’t be bought by oil lobbyists (i.e. he believes that green energy is the wave of the future.) 

But Colin is flawed and impulsive man as well. He’s caught in an affair with a cheerleading coach, a black woman, Lucy Hall (Ciera Payton), who is also married to (bad optics) a local fishermen. Colin is forced to back away from the Senate race, his marriage, and his political career due to the blowback from the scandal. He kind of spins out of control with alcoholism, a terminally ill father, and another affair with Kate. Working pro-bono as a legal advisor to those impacted by the spill, Colin finds $3.5 million dollars in the foundation’s bank account one day courtesy of, who else, BP Oil. 

But the money is “dirty”(or comes with some strings attached) and Colin must decide to either compromise his values and side with big oil OR stick to his values but lose any chance of political advancement, as he lives on in the shadows of his scandals / addictions.

Which do you think he chose? Hmmm, I wonder. Spoiler: he chose a political path just like politicians do. 

And it brings a tear to the eye. 

Why You Shouldn’t Watch This Movie

As a non-fan of the political drama, I could think of a million reasons why you shouldn’t “run” with The Runner, but here’s a few of my top choices.

• Nicolas Cage doesn’t look like a runner to me. When he runs, I just don’t believe it.
• The accent. I’m assuming Cage’s accent was meant to sound Cajun perhaps, but it sounds like a mix between southern and Long Island New Yorker to me. It’s pretty variable and sometimes doesn’t come through at all.
• Colin is no Jimmy Stewart Everyman. As much as I enjoy Cage, especially in roles that suit him, I have a hard time believing HIM to be the type of politician that would have the goodwill of the blue collar type down on the bayou. Jimmy Stewart was the master of this role. Tom Hanks does it well today. But for Colin, nah. He overdresses, he over-promises, he under-delivers. He seems like a “baby kisser” whose speeches are scripted even though “he thinks” they are not. Maybe Colin gets a little favor for being the son of a once “popular” politician, but Rayne Pryce is also a bit two-faced for me to believe he’d get re-elected in this district. I know these things happen in real life, but in a movie, you question it.
• So slow. The pace of this movie is glacial. The droning electric guitar strums in the background actually slow the action and dialogue down even more. I almost wished I could play it at 1.5 or 2x speed just to get through it. 
• Set in New Orleans = bad film. I don’t know what it is about these New Orleans movies, but most of them are just not on par with the best (or mid) of Cage (Zandalee, Sonny, Stolen, Seeking Justice, and now The Runner). The one exception to the rule of course (for me) is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

A Few Surprises

There weren’t too many surprises to write home about here, but if you are stuck on an airplane and this is the only option for viewing, here’s what you probably were at least sort of intrigued by.

• Sarah Paulson plays an interesting character as Colin’s publicist / fling. The scenes where she’s talking to Colin on the phone from her “harried” home with the kids she doesn’t like and the estranged husband were moving (as much as anything was in this dry bore.) He argument against a continued relationship with Colin was also decent writing / dialogue.

• Peter Fonda plays a pretty despicable father who is dying from liver cancer.  His pep talk about how Colin shouldn’t feel about his sex scandal because of the affairs of other powerful men (MLK, JFK, Clinton, etc) while at the table with the cuckolded wife, well, that’s just plain ballsy. Weird, but ballsy. The vulnerable scene in the hospital room with Colin and Rayne was also well scripted and believable to me.

• The conclusion. As unsatisfying as the ending is, i.e. Colin’s compromise to get what he wants, I believe it’s probably true to the film’s characters and to political reality. In a broken political system fueled by big dollar lobbyist, the media machines, and manipulation of public perception, what else was a guy like Colin going to do, EXCEPT sell out. And he did sell out. But to his credit, he did try to find another way to live. He just couldn’t pull it off.
• CCR. There was a good Creedence Clearwater Revival song that came in during the slowest part of the movie. That woke me up a little.

Firsts for Nicolas Cage as Colin Pryce

• Playing a “high-minded” but still smarmy & flawed politician
• Crying during an impassioned speech before Congress
• On the front page of a newspaper
• Getting interviewed for 20/20
• Making love in an elevator (Aerosmith nod)
• Sleeping on the pull-out mattress
• Googling himself and then doomscrolling
• Intentionally crashing car into his own home, deploying airbag (while drunk)

Recurrences

• In a movie with Peter Fonda (Deadfall, Ghostrider)
• In a movie with Wendell Pierce (It Could Happen to You)
• Philanderer (Lord of War, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans)
• Jogging for exercise (Windtalkers, Firebirds, 8mm)
• In the French District during Mardi Gras (Seeking Justice, Stolen)

Quotables

“This is the most devastating man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history.”

“I was weak.” 

“If you need anything else, you call me. You’ve got my personal number.” 

“You don’t think I’ve been through this before: Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike!”

“Oil is an addiction!” 

“I want people to know, I’m going to be there for them.”

“I was a functioning alcoholic, till I wasn’t.” 

“Instead of wasting our energy villying the oil industry and the GCCF, we need to be patient. We need to work together. Because the fact of the matter is: We need each other.” 

“Good legislation is the art of compromise.”

Conclusion:

This is yet another “straight-up” role that Cage played (to likely help pay his tax debt and stay out of trouble) For me, the acting was too “down the line” and “by the book” for maximum enjoyment. The script was meh, at best. Colin was tragic, but not tragic enough. He was heroic, but not heroic enough. He lacked the quirk and the accent and the backbone that he normally brings in spades. But the show must go on and I watched it. Twice. For God and for country.

When it comes to The Runner, I recommend you just run away.

On to the next election where we Pay the Ghost.