Nightstream Fest: RUN Review – Sarah Paulson Has Never Been Creepier, And That’s Saying Something
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty
Written by Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian
Starring Sarah Paulson, Kierra Allen, Pat Healy
Sarah Paulson is overexposed. Thank God. From Mrs. America to Ratched, her recent series output has been absolutely stellar, and now she introduces us to a feature role that may be her creepiest performance yet. In Run, premiering at Nightstream Fest and officially on Hulu November 20th, Paulson plays a mother unhinged who is desperately clinging to the power she wields over her sick teenage daughter played convincingly by Kierra Allen. What’s not clear about Run is if it’s supposed to be a thriller or a dark comedy.
Regardless, it should be a popular selection as a Hulu Original landing just before Thanksgiving to help families everywhere realize that maybe their family isn’t so crazy, after all. Putting the fun back in Munchausen Syndrome, Diane Sherman serves as a proxy to her wheelchair bound daughter Chloe who spends her days being home schooled and crafting Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions on her desk. She’s quite content, all things considered, but her crafty mind begins to slowly grow suspicious once she discovers her prescriptions may not be her own. The more she finds out, the less control Mom enjoys which forces Chloe to somehow find a way to escape the grasp of her clearly deranged caretaker.
In a series of events meant to show Chloe’s cleverness, the reveals in Run become slightly ridiculous to the point where you should probably just embrace the split from reality and just go with it. Far fetched situations involving an easily fooled pharmacist, for example, don’t amp up the tension even with Mom hot on her tail. These moments feel highly exaggerated and become so over-the-top that the cat and mouse between mother and daughter takes on a cartoonish quality that may not have been intended.
The unlikely twists and turns of the plot do, however, start to compliment Paulson’s positively deranged performance where, clearly, the red hot actress is having an absolute ball running around like a maniac. The facade of the perfect mother dissolves in spectacular fashion as the entire town starts to see Diane’s lies unravel. Interestingly, it’s unclear what Diane likes more: the appearance of perfection or the total control she enjoys over her weakened daughter.
A sudden cameo by the great Pat Healy (Cheap Thrills, The Pale Door) helps Run turn the corner into legit comedy territory and lets Paulson run even wilder. That leads to an absolutely batshit crescendo worthy of the legacy of films that Run piggy backs on from What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? and the other Hulu series The Act. If Hulu has a trilogy of Munchausen movies planned, I certainly wouldn’t object.
Run debuts on Hulu on November 20th, 2020.
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RUN
Summary
Sarah Paulson, as usual, is the reason to watch this often thrilling, sometimes generic Hulu Original that keeps the Munchausen by Proxy subgenre alive and kicking.
