| NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN : Wayne Kramer's 'Running Scared' [6/10] |
|
|
| Monday, 16 January 2006 | |
|
Running Scared is an enjoyably blood-soaked and ludicrously over-the-top action-thriller. It's undeniably messy, and too long at two hours, with top-billed Paul Walker (yet again) miscast. But writer-director Kramer handles proceedings with enough chutzpah - and tongue-in-cheek humour - that audiences will probably reckon they've gotten a decent bang for their buck. Or should that be their Koruna? Because, despite being set in the badlands of New Jersey, the vast majority of Running Scared was actually filmed in Prague - eight weeks out of nine, in fact, though the official line is that the movie was "shot in Newark, with additional shooting in Prague." The closing credit-roll is full of behind-the-scenes names ending in '-ova', but apart from Czech-born Karel Roden and Bosnia's Ivana Milicevic - who have meaty supporting roles (as Russians) - the main cast here is (North) American. Walker is Joey Gazelle, a hot-tempered member of a three-man criminal gang. Joey's main function in the outfit is to dispose of guns used in robberies. But rather than throwing them in the river, he stashes them in his basement (for reasons explained very late in the day). He's seen secreting one such 'gat' by his 10-year-old son Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and Nicky's best friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright) - who lives next door with mother Mila (Milicevic) and abusive, John Wayne-worshipping, Russian-Mafia-connected step-dad Anzor (Roden). Tired of being bullied, Oleg spots his chance - he steals one of Johnny's guns and uses it to shoot Anzor before fleeing into the night. Johnny must track down both weapon and child before the cops or the Mafia get to them first. And although he manages to find Oleg soon enough, this proves to be only the start of their problems... A 'Paul Walker vehicle' isn't perhaps what you might have expected from the writer-director of Oscar-nominated character-study The Cooler. Then again, despite the fact that Running Scared is played dead-straight by the actors, we soon realise Kramer's tongue is seldom far from his cheek ('Joey Gazelle, indeed...) The fact that Canadian child-star Bright has so much-screen time (even more than Birth and Godsend) is another plus: Walker is out of his depth against this precocious, serious-faced lad, and it's amusing seeing the nominal star resort to increasingly desperate histrionics in his struggle to keep up. He's also outclassed by Vera Farmiga as his long-suffering wife Teresa - who doesn't have much to do for long stretches, but makes up for lost time whenever she's given the opportunity. But it's the animated end-credits - which are a straight steal from (or 'hommage to') last year's Lemony Snicket picture - that really give Kramer's game away. With juveniles present (as witnesses and/or participants) in nearly every scene, Running Scared is a trigger-happy popcorn picture as with a deliberately heightened sensibility and weird fairytale touches. It doesn't quite come off - and the children we see are ice-hockey-mad and well past the fairytale phase - but Kramer at least deserves credit for his ambition, and for the crazed, almost demented boldness of his directorial overkill which takes some getting used to at first. Indeed, the film's cumulative impact over the (increasingly delirious) course of a long running-time is much more impressive than you'd expect from the hyperkinetic, over-stylised opening scenes. All in all, by no means a bad thriller by Hollywood standards - although that should really be Hollywood-style, as the picture is an independent, relatively low-budget ($17m) co-production between Canadian, German, American and Czech funders, which was picked up for US distribution by New Line for a reported $6m. This slightly unorthodox background perhaps explains why Running Scared has obtained such a cursory UK release (a full six weeks before the American rollout). In its second week, most multiplexes scheduled it only for 11.30am matinee slots: this an 18-certificate film featuring copious bloodshed, endless swearing and some truly disturbing child-abuse subplots. Nicky and Oleg are exposed to much more extreme material than is the norm in American movies: early on Joey and Teresa are concerned about exposing their boy to bad language, but the odd four-letter-word is small beer alongside the gory violence witnessed by Oleg over the course of this one night. It culminates in an operatically OTT sequence set in a deserted, UV-lit ice-hockey rink in which Joey has pucks repeatedly smashed into his face as he's held down against the ice (a scene whose gleeful schadenfreude will be relishes by Walker's many detractors.) The hapless Oleg has already encountered even greater danger, however, in the film's most uncomfortable sequence - he stumbles (very implausibly) into the clutches of a nice-seeming middle-class couple (Elizabeth Mitchell, Bruce Altman) who turn out to be a pair of kiddie-slaughtering paedophile sadists. It's in this episode that Kramer's stated* 'Grimm fairy tale' ambitions really come into focus: this 'Hansel & Gretel' subplot may not make a great deal of objective sense - and the means by which Oleg falls into the paedophile's clutches stretches credulity beyond breaking-point - but it does deliver an undeniable nightmarish, visceral tension, even if we already know that Oleg makes it out OK. This is because Kramer unwisely begins Running Scared with a prologue showing Joey and Oleg the next morning - the bulk of the film is effectively a flash-back. It's bad enough when reviewers give away crucial plot details in their commentary, without film-makers including "spoilers" of their own... Neil Young 16th January, 2005 RUNNING SCARED : [6/10] : USA (US/Ger/Cz/Can) 2006 (copyright-dated 2005) : Wayne KRAMER : 122 mins (BBFC timing) seen at Cineworld cinema, Sunderland (UK), 15th January 2006 - public show * Wayne Kramer speaks: "A child's Grimm's fairy tale nightmare, but taking place in like a mob world. The subtext is that this is seen from a kid's eyes and throughout the night he encounters these freakish characters that are all sort of fairy tale icons. You'll see fairy tale imagery throughout the film, but it's subtle. We shot it in a very vibrant way... a little bit hallucinogenic. You see this hooker that the kid encounters as a blue fairy or guardian angel type of character. You see the Hansel and Gretel kind of characters, a Grim Reaper figure... When you watch the movie it's like a real roller coaster ride, but when you think about it afterwards you think, 'My God, it's a freak show!' And I guess it's gonna be very controversial for that reason, because it throws the kids right into the middle of this." ... and praises his leading man: "The first thing I noticed when I met this guy was the intensity in his eyes. And if anybody knows anything about Paul, he's not this surfer/stoner guy that you've seen a lot of times. Paul is a badass. Paul likes to go into bars and get in fights. He's a great guy, but if somebody picks on him and says, 'Hey, you're not so tough, I saw you in that movie.' It'll be the last thought they have. ... interview on Film Force IGN website
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
