The Runner (2015)

Today on Movie Russian Roulette, Alex watches Nicolas Cage's dick lead him to ruin.

No, seriously. That's the entire movie.

Overview: The Great One plays Colin Pryce, an idealistic Louisiana Representative who skyrockets to national attention through his passionate efforts to protect his home state from a Gulf oil spill. Complications occur when the press discovers he's cheating on his wife.

This movie also has a number of subplots revolving around Colin's attempt to run for Senate, his multiple (!) conquests, and the conflict between his idealism and political reality. This is a character-focused drama, and amazingly, Cage doesn't go too hammy here. This is him playing understated, and to the shock of those who only know him through memes or reputation, he's damn good at it.

Notable quotes/moments: Colin, trying to get more needed gear for the Coast Guard: "I'm just sick of all this posturing. You don't think I've been through this before?"

Shady businessman/lobbyist, after Colin refuses to compromise his principles: "You're not going to win."
Colin: "We'll see."

When we finally see Colin's mistress, she's had a rough day and moves to start the sexin', but Colin just leaves the room. Strangely, when we later see the pair through the lens of an elevator's security cam, both were all over each other only moments ago.

Colin, to his wfie: "I want you to see someone with me. I know you don't want to, but we don't have a choice."
Wife: "Did you have a choice when you slept with that 27 year old cheerleading coach?"

Apparently not

Kate, Colin's post-resignation from office publicist: "You don't want to be burdened with a 37 year old's midlife crisis."
Colin: "You're only 37 years old."
Kate: "Fuck off."

They do.

Cage's new new lady, when he tries to take things too fast: "I'm not divorced yet, Colin. And neither are you."

Final line of the movie, from Cage as he takes a metaphorical deal with the Devil to run for office again: "Good legislating is the art of compromise. Good business is the art of compromise. Life will forever be the art of compromise."

Pretty clear who you're really fighting for, buddy

My thoughts: For the first half-hour of the movie or so, I was on my way to being blown away. The acting was hitting appropriate notes, and the script was doing a passable imitation of some House of Cards style political theatre, even if this movie's characters weren't nearly as devious. I felt for the characters and became emotionally invested in their struggles and agendas.

And then the main story seems to wrap up.

Yes, in a whirlwind 30 minutes, Cage's character rises to national prominence, fights for his state against the ravages of an oil spill, is wrapped up in a scandal, and then resigns from office as his wife divorces him. At this point, I could feel the movie lurch to a stop, mutter, "Ah, fuck, now what?" and scratch its head. Now, seeing Cage's character have to rebuild and move on could have made for compelling drama, but it's clear no character growth has really taken place and he's still the mostly one-note idealist with a philandering side that he was at the movie's onset. Oh, but now he's an alcoholic after years of being clean! Surely this is an original way to show his fall from grace!

Chug one for me, too, bud

From here, the movie slides into a lot of expected, almost cliche moments and beats. There are plenty of slow walks through New Orleans with pensive music, Cage having to adjust to separating from his wife by moving into a new space, finding a new job blah blah blah it's been done before and done better.

In fact, for a character-focused drama, the main character is its main problem. Cage as Colin Pryce is always the good guy in his work, unwilling to sacrifice his ideals or compromise in the name of doing the right thing. Hell, even after he resigns from office, he works as a pro bono attorney for a foundation dedicated to helping people affected by the oil spill. Cage doesn't even seem to mind that much as another politician, Chris Wilcox, steals some of Cage's positions and starts to have a similarly meteoric rise. Pryce has a sudden lurch toward the dark side in the movie's last five minutes, admittedly, but there's a lot of rote moments to slog through to get there.

For a movie determined to pad its length, a number of small, nagging points are never addressed. In example, after the first third of the movie, Cage's original mistress vanishes from the movie. Did she and Cage have a falling out? Did she decide to stay with her husband? What happened to her? "Fuck you," the movie says, "now care about Cage's new woman." After their little disappearing act, I found it much more difficult to care how this one was going to go, as I correctly assumed this affair would be snatched away from our too-beautiful-for-this-sinful-Congress main character.

The movie also has nine months pass without mentioning it until an offhand line establishes it. Much as I hate them, no title card or caption? The timeframe of everything gets a little hard to keep track of exactly.

The script also treats adultery rather... lightly. I'm not sure what director/writer Austin Stark has experienced in his life to make him think so, but the movie treats Cage's adultery as a minor failing. Hell, Cage's wife even comes up to him to apologize and say she wants to get back together. The media attention on the original affair is also treated as petty mudslinging. I know in American politics adultery is often blown out of proportion as a massive failing of character that usually automatically disqualifies people from being thrown out of office, but the act is still a massive betrayal of trust. Quite frankly, after watching this movie, I don't think Mr. Stark understands that, since Cage's character is held up as this impossible paragon of good through 95% of the movie. I may be looking into this too deeply, but seriously, when cheating on someone you've promised to be with for the rest of your life is treated with the same severity by the movie's "calmer heads" as littering, things are a bit fucked.

Still, I do have to give the movie credit where credit is due. Its actors, including Cage, plenty personal drama with all the gravity and subtlety it deserves, and there are some fantastic performance moments from nearly everyone involved. I just wish the script had been either shortened into a short film (which, as I understand, the director's previous work mostly consists of) or lengthened into a mini-series. But those things don't get taken seriously in American media, outside of a few exceptions.

so hard, and didn't get very far

I give this movie a Nic Cage Tries to do a Southern Accent Again out of five. Send me movie suggestions on Facebook and help me keep my cat fed on Patreon.