Larger text
Smaller text
Print
E-mail
Running Scared
Rated R for pervasive, strong, brutal violence and language, sexuality and drug content;
The story has a passable peg. Joey Gazalle (Paul Walker), a peon in the New Jersey mob ranks, hides a telltale gun from wife Teresa (Vera Farmiga) and son Nicky (Alex Neuberger), who is about 10. Joey is unaware that Nicky and next-door-playmate Oleg (Cameron Bright) are watching.
When Oleg swipes the gun and shoots his abusive Russian-mobster stepfather, Ivan Yugorsky (John Noble), the mob wants both the gun AND the boy.
Kramer has the stuffings of a thriller, coupled with the inevitable redemption of Joey. But the picture is overwrought in every respect. It's filming and editing are tricked-up for the attention-impaired. A wearying abundance of impoverished language goes beyond character establishment.
Subhuman behavior is steam-shoveled onto the screen not for insight but for kicks. "Running Scared" dawdles on the actions of low-lifes as they treat women viciously, abuse an elderly man and torture each other with levels of bloodshed that beg the question: What do you have to do anymore to get an NC-17 rating?
There's even an entirely expendable sequence, introduced through an incredible coincidence, involving child exploitation. As it happens, it's the most maturely and suspensefully realized part of the film. But what's it doing in "Running Scared"?
The picture succeeds mainly is being repulsive and reprehensible.
