Unless you are an aficionado of music history, the following names may not ring a bell:
Redbone, The Buggles, The Vapors, Deep Blue Something, Daniel Powter, a-ha, Soft Cell, Dexys Midnight Runners, Los Del Rio.
All of these musical artists are (as far as I could tell through a Google search) considered to be “one-hit wonders”, and I would wager you would know them more for their specific songs than you would their actual names (Google search them and find out).
Why do I bring all this up? Because if I were asked to do the cinematic equivalent of a one-hit wonder, the first name to come to mind (at least in recent memory) would have to be Gal Gadot.
She was wonderfully cast in the old DC universe as Diana/Wonder Woman, but everything since then hasn’t been that beneficial to her acting career. I can only speak for what I have seen since she hung up the lasso of truth, but with forgettable Netflix fare like Red Notice (2021) and Heart of Stone (2023), she is truly revealing herself to be a one-trick pony (not to mention how she easily brought down the Snow White remake).
Now here she is in the titular role of The Runner. Her Maia Marten is a lawyer living in London with her diabetic son Noah (Rory Wilmot). On the last day of a trial dealing with a mafia leader of some kind, she drops her son off at school and goes for a run before work. She later gets a call from his cell phone. A mysterious voice on the other end tells her to kill one of the star witnesses within one hour, or her son will die without getting his needed shot. He is a tech wizard, so he will know if she tries to tell anyone about him or to get help (which, of course, is against the rules).
Thankfully, the 84-minute runtime suggests the filmmakers at least get the time element right. It also helps that the voice on the other end (who is never given a name) is voiced by Damian Lewis (who we only get glimpses of). His voice is right for this kind of role, with the perfect blend of sinister and charm. Sadly, those are the only positives of the film, as the rest of it is completely lackluster.
Not all of this is Gadot’s fault. It is not her fault that I found myself asking random questions such as
“Can a child still have a different accent from their biological parent?”
“Why do the characters keep getting mixed up between using the metric system vs. the US system?”
“How did this film (according to IMDB) take two months to finish?”
“How does Maia take nearly as much damage as Wonder Woman did?”
“How can the makers try to add a twist element this poorly?”
“Why has Gadot (who I assume is a nice person IRL) not yet sued her acting teacher(s)?”
Parents, there is some swearing, and one minor scene of lingerie photos being shown. Nothing else to watch out for (or, more to the point, entertain).
Despite all these complaints (and more), I have not even mentioned the worst part. Only after the plot’s climax (which is rather an insult to both “plot”, “climax”, and the apostrophe) did the film start buffering. In contrast, I remember years ago when I tried to finally see In the Mood for Love (2000), which was buffering throughout.
Life really can be unfair sometimes.
Overall:
Nothing else to say 