by Mitchell Jordan
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Callan Mulvey; Charlotte Maggi, Felix Cameron, Nicholas Hope
Intro:
… often chilling, sometimes confronting and it’s worth sticking with Aliah and Mac until the conclusion of their journey.
It’s the year 2036 and Australia is a dystopia. Three years, four months and eight days have passed since the country’s last recorded birth and questions remain as to whether this fertility crisis is the result of an unnamed virus or vaccine. In this state of chaos and confusion, complete anarchy has descended: there are protests over lockdown and quarantine laws which the police are at a loss to contain; travel is almost impossible and the public are calling for the prime minister – whoever they are – to resign.
“Our task now is to cling to what little hope remains,” says the unnamed PM in a radio interview.
Hope indeed. Writer and director Stephen de Villiers uses this nightmarish scenario as the basis for his first narrative film, which sees Aliah (Charlotte Maggi), a young mother with a newborn and Mac (Callan Mulvey), who’s being forced to work for criminals to keep his sick wife safe, join forces as an unlikely duo attempting to get Aliah’s baby to safety.
The premise isn’t particularly original, and the parallels to the global pandemic of 2020 appear to be an obvious source of inspiration. Shots of Aliah running through the bush clutching her unnamed baby could easily belong in HBO’s TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale, while the parent-child duo trying to survive in an apocalyptic landscape is reminiscent of John Hillcoat’s 2009 film, The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy’s literary best-seller.
This isn’t to say, however, that The Run doesn’t have a lot going for it. Cinematically, it’s striking in its evocation of a country that’s been ravaged. Filmed entirely in South Australia, the shots of the sun-bleached coastal hills and dim forest landscapes are both menacing and melancholy, while the chemistry between Aliah and Mac is certainly believable. Around halfway through, de Villiers really racks up the tension with some nail-biting scenes where the escapees are confronted by lawless criminals who want Aliah’s baby no matter what, and the suspense is often nail-biting.
Where The Run does fall short is its sparsity of details. It’s not that a film needs to tell its audience everything, and we do witness flashes of Mac’s past, but it isn’t enough for us to get to know him and Aliah. Similarly, the state of Australia could have also been explored further: is this fertility crises a global issue? What else did the elusive virus do that made the country lock down its people (again)? Save for the voice of the female radio announcer in the film’s opening, and a glimpse in the final scene, other women are largely absent from The Run, which only serves to raise more questions.
In spite of this, The Run is often chilling, sometimes confronting and it’s worth sticking with Aliah and Mac until the conclusion of their journey.
