Dissatisfied with his meaningless job and depressed over his wife filing for divorce, a Canadian man decides to become a marathon runner with hopes of Olympic glory in this early career Michael Douglas drama. The begins well with Douglas having to overcome resistance from everyone around him, including his two daughters who find him embarrassing because he insists on running everywhere - including beside them as they cycle to school. The strained relationship between Douglas and Susan Anspach (as his wife) is curious too as he begins courting her (and she accepts his advances) once the divorce goes through. It is as if the they just needed the excitement of copulation outside of marriage to rejuvenate things. The second half of the film is unfortunately nowhere near as engaging though as Douglas finally qualifies for Olympic try-outs. It never rings true how all his naysayers suddenly begin cheering him on, and the film becomes sentimental to boot near the end, not helped one iota by a maudlin music score. In all fairness, the film's director, Steven Hillard Stern, does well visualising all of the running scenes with mobile camera-work and some atmospheric nighttime runs. Stern was never an especially remarkable director though with films like 'The Devil and Mex Devlin' and 'I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now' to his credit, and it is hard not to wonder what another director may have done with the material. Certainly there is a lot of interest in how Douglas wishes to live his dream beyond all social norms and expectations and Douglas is at least solid in the lead role.
