Thoughts on Running on Empty

 

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"Hi, Dad. ... I asked Jonah to set this up. ... You can call the cops if you want to. ... Look, um ... I'm sorry. ... This is hard for me, too."
"... I wonder if you'll ever know what it's like, not to see your child for 14 years. ... Not knowing whether she's living or dead. ... Not knowing, whether that child is responsible for the death and mutilation of other human beings. Whether to hold yourself responsible, for that death and mutilation, because it is your child, who is pulling the triggers, setting the bombs."

"I didn't kill anybody. Look, I didn't come here to defend myself or to talk politics. If you don't believe by now that what I did was an act of conscience to stop the war, then there's nothing I can say to you that's gonna make you understand."

I'm going to guess this scene between Christine Lahti and Steven Hill was what guaranteed her Golden Globe nomination for Running on Empty. In a weaker year, or if the movie was more financially successful, she could have been among the Academy Award contenders. I can talk about bougie things like box office grosses and movie awards because, at its heart, Empty is a sentimental flick. Screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Sidney Lumet, I'm guessing, didn't want audiences to think too much about the Popes' 16-years-and-counting experience on the lam. The point is that Annie, husband Arthur (Judd Hirsch), Danny (River Phoenix) and Harry (Jonas Abry) have been everything for each other. But nothing lasts forever.

Suppose that by making something of yourself, you really will do better than your parents ever can. Suppose that this chance could be taken away by circumstances and cowardice. Arthur, at his most pitiful, tells Danny that there can't be any breaking rank. "We're a unit!" By this point, it's apparent that Annie and Arthur threw away their lives by not fully accepting responsibility after bombing a napalm laboratory. And yet, somehow, their guilt never rings as true as it should be. Maybe there needed to be more consequences, like if Harry had emotional problems because he's never actually had a home or identity. David Denby is right. There's a little too much "Look, I told you I'm sorry, alright?" (my words, not his) about what Annie and Arthur did.

"A man was blinded and paralyzed."

"He wasn't supposed to be there. Don't you think there have times that I would have blinded and paralyzed myself to take that back?"

"It's all Arthur's influence."

"No, Dad, it isn't. It was my idea. I'm living with the consequences of my own choice."

(Donald and Annie rehash the Vietnam era for a little longer before she asks him to take in Danny. They want him at Julliard. "Just like they wanted you.")

"There's some irony in this, don't you think, Annie? Here you are, asking me to take Danny, into a life that you ran from like a shot out of hell."

Lahti and Phoenix got most of the attention for Empty, but a few critics felt Lumet was most successful with directing Phoenix and Martha Plimpton, as Lorna, Danny's apparently first serious girlfriend. The pair of Ps really are excellent together, maybe the most "real" young movie actors since ... wait for it ... teenage Jodie Foster. For all the melodrama in Empty, there is something so right, so genuine and sweet in moments like Annie's birthday party also serving as Danny and Lorna's first date. "Fire and Rain" plays as the table gets cleared and eventually the quintet are singing and dancing along. Lumet does something interesting. Most directors would likely opt for a closeup of anyone. Instead, the song is shared and the scene is better for it.

Seeing Empty did make me think about the fugitive life. I imagine that the only way it's sustainable in 2021 is to either live off the grid or go completely anonymous. Never staying in one place for longer than a night, never having any belongings other than what you can take with you. I imagine that scenario would wreck havoc on all of the family's mental health. Empty doesn't go for sprawling storytelling. There's isn't an FBI agent serving as the Popes' personal Javert/Gerard. Law enforcement may be after Arthur and Annie, who have managed to keep ahead of their pursuers. But it's awful hard to elude a sense of honor, let alone time.

*Donald refuses to take in Danny. It's too much to ask. Annie, heartbroken, talks about Harry and her plans to eventually turn herself in once he's old enough to live alone. She can't guarantee Arthur will do the same.*

"Please think about this. ... Well ... I should go."

"Annie. ... He can come to us."

*Lahti is playing at least two emotions here, gratitude but also sorrow.*

"(choking up) Please, tell Mom that I love her. And I've thought about you both so often. I've called out to you. I'm sorry that I've caused you so much pain. ... I guess I'm about to see what it feels like. ... I love you, Dad."

*Annie leaves and Donald finally cries.*

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:
-- "(Arthur remembers his recently-deceased mother) That lady loved me. Last winter, when they arranged to have her meet me in Chicago, she flew there on an hour's notice. Alone, in a blizzard. She's terrified of flying. She was green when she got off the plane. I took her over to the lounge to talk and we sat in a corner and I said, 'I wish it was easier.' 'You wish it were easier,' she says. ... She's correcting my grammar like I'm one of the kids she teaches."
-- Box Office: Grossing $2.8 million on a $7 million budget, this presumably didn't get a wide release.

-- Awards Watch: Oscar nominations, no wins, for Foner and Phoenix. Foner picked up the movie's lone Golden Globe award, while the film itself, Lahti, Phoenix and Lumet were also-rans. The movie and Plimpton also received Young Artist Awards nominations.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: They hated this one in Washington, D.C. "Foner goes for the sentimental jugular while Lumet pins you to the floor," Desson Howe wrote, before singling out the "Fire and Rain" singalong. "For the whole song." For his part, Hal Hinson declared that "Sidney Lumet may be the laziest major director working today. ... he leaves it entirely up to his performs to carry the scenes." Denby wasn't a fan, either. "It takes a certain shamelessness to sell some sixties radicals to the public as the ultimate American family." "Painful, emotionally moving," according to Roger Ebert. "The actors are often so good that they're able to be real and touching even when the material sounds strained," Janet Maslin wrote.

-- Critic's Corner, Lahti and Phoenix: "Annie ... is another Christine Lahti experiment in diffident eccentricity," according to Howe. "She is a radiant, emotionally generous actress," Denby wrote. "Her empathy holds the picture together." "Phoenix essentially carries the story; it's about him," Ebert wrote. Denby again: "It's too early to tell whether he can do more than glum earnestness."

-- Hey, It's ...!: Lynne Thigpen, David Margulies and Alice Drummond.

-- So, what do we think happened to the Popes? Arthur mentions that he and Annie face 15 years in jail. Despite Annie's uncertainty, I think Arthur would also turn himself in alongside her. Let's say this happens around 1995. More time could have been added to their sentences, given how long it had been since the bombing. Then again, Arthur and Annie could also have been among the people Bill Clinton pardoned as he left office. Anyway, I think that if the Popes have served their time, they've since become experts (moles?) in preventing the spread of domestic terrorism.

-- "All families break up. Why do you have to carry the burden of someone else's life?" 

-- Next: A Fish Called Wanda. On deck: Crossing Delancey.