It was like mother, like daughter. History repeats itself in "Running Away" when young Maggie runs away from home, exactly like her mother Peg when she was sixteen.
While we never learn the circumstances of why the widow Peg ran away, the reason that her daughter left home was due to the monster of a man that her mom married. It was never made clear why the career criminal Richard married Peg. But what was clear was that the stepfather was a pervert whose character was completely misjudged by the mom.
The main problem with "Running Away" was the unpleasantness of the situations and the dire circumstances of Maggie. Even her school is a wretched environment with the only saving grace the nerd Chip who befriends her. We see the film through the eyes of Maggie. Yet in the first third of the film and before she has come under the tyrannical influence of Richard, we see a young woman constantly unsteady on her feet due to alcoholism.
Out of a misguided attempt to recreate the circumstances where her mother met her beloved birth father, Maggie flees to the town of Anita Rosa where she makes a beeline to the tavern, the romantic setting where her parents met. Along the way, she gets linked up to a horrid, drug-infested house that is eventually linked back to Richard.
It is only due to the quick-thinking Chip that Peg learns the whereabouts of her daughter. Thus begins the mad scramble to get to Anita Rosa and rescue Maggie. An essential reference point for Maggie is a baby picture of her along with her father and the inscription, "a father's love is limitless." But, in the film, that ideal remained in the world of fantasy as Maggie must now face will surely be a long road to recovery.
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