At a time when urban runners or joggers were seen as fanatics, Michael Douglas plays an unemployed, divorced thirty-something with two kids who sees running as a means of making it...and even more lofty than that, he hopes to enter the Olympics! Reels of film go by with nothing for us to look at except Douglas' desperately focused, determined face. The trouble with that is, this isn't really a character at all: our hero is nothing but a mouthpiece on the move. He's impatient hothead--a drop-out from both medical and law school!--plus a buddy to his ex-wife (Susan Anspach, who cheers him on), a role-model to his youngest daughter (whose schoolmates make fun of him), and an enemy for the people. Writer-director Steven H. Stern has apparently soaked up nothing but clichés in training for this exceedingly thin character study; he spits them right back at us, expecting us to cheer. *1/2 from ****
Review of Running
Running
(1979)
The title is taken literally and figuratively...which should tell you what you're in for
11 December 2010