Running on Empty’ (you will note there are many films titled exactly that but this particular film is not the one of admirable title and fame by Sidney Lumet although there is the same name song by Jackson Browne) starts with that interesting plot but sadly gets to be at that level all over the place with laughter and jokes that are from disturbing to carry over in every dull instance making it harder for any one of the cast members to pretend as if this movie was some genius creative idea by a dead person, a monologue that you can imagine to be even worse than the most horrible set of eavesdropping as it was pretty terrible as it would have been worse to listen to for nearly 90 minutes.
All that remains to be enjoyed from this movie is its original idea, and just like a ceremony that drags on in the hot summer sun, takes too long to climax.
Mortimer ((Keir Gilchrist) is a mortuary worker (sorry, funeral director) living and working in which used to be the family business in San Fernando Valley- and residing with his mildly disturbing uncle Barry (Jim Gaffigan). Let me restrict my questions by one. After Mort buys a house with his conventionally hot fiancée Nicole (Francesca Eastwood), both visit a hospital in order to be told about the date of their death. As good news for Nicole, she stands a good chance of living a couple of decades more. Bad news for Mordis that he will meet his end within the span of the year.
Nicole breaks up with him and this drives him to an adventure where he has to find a way to live up to his last days on the planet. During that course she meets Kate (Lucy Hale), who is rather sympathetic, and a rather nightmarish type that calls himself a pimp, Simon (Rhys Coiro), who is often found coming back to more Mort to shake him down.
It should also be noted that Daniel Andre – the writer and director of the comedy ‘Running on empty’ – is indifferent to achieving any pleasurable effects for a rom-com.
The subject matter might probably be the most interesting part of the film, but as Mort touches ladies and gets up in their outraged faces for some pointless embellishing like speed dating with LA’s worst bachelorette all over again, other repeated Simon’s dreadful visiting hours, the despairing enjoyment start erasing as Mort’s time on this planet runs like melted ice cream in the summer.
The problem is that André has to laugh at it because he drowns his protagonist in one unmitigated ill-fated evening after another. The movie, “Running on Empty” however provides some clues which rip off from the film by Martin Scorsese ‘After Hours’ though clocks cannot stress Mort in a gently effective way the way time is emphasised in friendship.
In the role of Mort too, Gilchrist seems to be quite unfazed by the exploitative nature of her role. Even when he is at his most enraged or intensely enthusiastic, there is something flat about the rises and falls of his line deliveries, almost like a faint pulse. I don’t know if this is how the main character was meant to be played with such a tone in order to evoke laughter or if the character was so poorly written that Gilchrist simply accepted that there was no point in trying to bring that character to life. But he seemed tired and I felt as such in turn.
In keeping with the image, Nicole is also a collection of the cutouts, but in a more skimming way than that which Kate was a darling for Ramona Flowers, except there was no analysis or history.
But there is perhaps a comic relief from Hale ‘s character which not even Gaffigan’s Barry or his Sid Mort ‘s co-worker Jay Pharoah’ manage to do. She is such a bundle of fun in a film where virtually everyone else appears to be in a daze. It’s not quite enough to make miracles happen in the movie or the dialogue, but some advanced stage is better than none anyway.
The problem with “Running on Empty” is that it comes off as another one of those comedies that doesn’t start from the ground and stay in the air for the minimum time required. Too many sub-par performances and too few hold that one and simplistic jokes and sick jokes and sick\plain\negligent visuals and great Simon says… And I could sense how helpless is death mobility from the eagerness of their demonstration. As for “Running on Empty” so much stayed true to its title of “Running on Empty”.
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