Run & Jump is a fictional drama set in Ireland. Run & Jump focuses on how a young family adapts to life after a stroke leaves the father mentally disabled. An American neurologist, played by Will Forte, lives with the family and videotapes his progress. If Run & Jump did not have such a skilled cast and was not so exquisitely shot, the film could be dismissed as a tv movie.
Run & Jump juggles so many storylines that after awhile, it feels like they forgot about the young daughter. There is the potential love triangle between the wife and her husband and his doctor. There is the father’s struggle to connect with his former life and emotionally. There is the doctor as substitute father figure. My favorite storyline was the relationship between the doctor and the son. There is the emotional awakening of the doctor to life outside of work. There is the grandparents’ struggle to accept things versus giving their son and grandson a swift kick in the pants to return to normal. There is the father’s open disgust and ridicule of his son. There is the role of the community in how they support and punish the wife’s ways of coping with the situation.
I always give demerits whenever a movie or tv show depicts someone as fun loving by having people smoke marijuana. The stroke seems rather convenient. The father suffers no physical, only mental limitations so he can still be hot for the audiences. Also if he is mentally disabled, can he consent to sex initiated by his wife or is that rape?
I’m not familiar with her past work, but Maxine Peake is captivating as the matriarch. Anyone who saw Nebraska will not be surprised that Will Forte can hold a viewer’s attention for more than a few minutes and be a credible dramatc character.
While I enjoyed Run & Jump and believe it is a credible independent film, the narrative is overstuffed with Lifetime movie plot twists.