Running on Empty (1988) User Reviews

the first film that made me cry

[nighthawk216 · 9/10 · 15 November 2004]

I saw this movie when it was first released on video and was astounded that it was not nominated for Best Picture over lesser fare like Working Girl. I was 14 at the time and the conclusion of the movie was the first time I ever cried while watching a film. It's been 16 years and only four other movies have had that affect on me (Shadowlands, Philadelphia, In America, Return of the King). Watching it with my wife tonight (her first time seeing it) and I still cried at the conclusion.

This movie, more than any other, even Stand By Me, makes me miss the adult actor that River Phoenix might have become. We have been lucky enough to see the fine actors that Sean Penn, Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise have become, but River might have

surpassed them all. He most assuredly had the potential.

I have seen thousands of movies now, have devoted myself to watching every film by 100 great directors (even the horrible ones) and Sidney Lumet has rewarded me as I have re-watched such classics as Network, 12 Angry Men and Serpico, but this might be his best film. Christine Lahti's performance is letter on perfect and she should have won the Oscar (wasn't nominated). I am glad the Academy got the two most important nominations correct: River and the screenplay.

This is a perfect movie for teens as they can understand the growing pains that River's character is going through and a perfect movie for adults as well, as they can understand what is threatening to tear the family apart.

Brilliant, warm, convincing, straight up drama with great acting

[secondtake · 9/10 · 18 June 2018]

Running on Empty

First of all, what a great performance by River Phoenix. In fact, there are smart, convincing, warm performances by all the main cast. At first you might feel this is a movie about a couple on the lam for a long-ago crime, and that they happened to have two kids. But really the opening of the movie, an inside view from Phoenix's character's situation, makes clear that he is the start, and the fulcrum, around which the rest of the characters swing. So the movie ends up being an interpersonal drama, and you sympathize with everyone, even if they have done a "bad" thing. This is open to your judgement, for sure...a 1960s radical sentiment on the part of the left leaning director, Syndey Lumet, who had the early uber-classic "12 Angry Men" as well as "Serpico" and many others. It was Lumet who drew me to the film, but it was Phoenix who stole the show (and who breaks your heart knowing how young he committed suicide). Look for the kind of classic filming and editing you'd expect from this well-schooled director. It's a warm film, and it avoids pretentiousness and artifice, turning instead to the innate abilities of the actors, including a young Marth Plimpton. Plimpton is wonderful, and she is given some classic lines, funny and perceptive just as you'd expect this kind of girl to be. (Plimpton was in another movie with Phoenix, "The Mosquito Coast," two years earlier.) So watch this, for sure. It was nominated for a ton of awards, and overcomes what seems to be a contrived, tightly focussed impossibility of a plot and makes it work. Very well!

Doesn't make the mistake of glorifying crime

[SnobbyDude · 9/10 · 19 January 2003]

This is a fantastic movie. Definitely one of the 5 best I've seen in recent memory. Someone that wrote a review here felt that the two parents are placed upon a pedestal by the film makers, but I don't think this is the case at all. They are accountable for their actions and know what they did was wrong. They have to pay for their actions throughout their lives and will likely turn themselves in as soon as they can be assured that their kids will be safe. The kids are the ones I feel sorry for, not the parents.

I think the main point of the movie is to make people aware of how the actions/decisions they make can hurt other people, including themselves. People often make rash decisions without thinking about the long term consequences their actions cause for themselves and other people.

River Phoenix at his best.

[gsprods · 10/10 · 4 January 2000]

The best reason to watch this film is of course the performance by River Phoenix, which now that he's dead, we will never know if he could have topped this. He was one of the youngest actors ever nominated for an Oscar. Another reason to watch the film is Christine Lahti from Chicago Hope who gives her best screen performance here. She won the Los Angeles Film Critic's award for Best Actress of 1988 and received a Golden Globe nomination but unfortunately she must have just missed when they announced who the five finalists were for the Oscar. She has two scenes in this film where she just tore my heart out, including one with Steven Hill from Law And Order who plays her father. The movie did get an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and made many top ten lists, including Roger Ebert's. Although it wasn't a box office hit, I believe it will be remembered as one of Director Sidney Lumet's best films and certainly the best one to watch if you want to remember why the talented actor River Phoenix's death was so tragic.

Judd Hirsch Horribly Miscast

[TheFearmakers · 6/10 · 21 January 2023]

Not a bad movie but Judd Hirsch, who is brilliant on the series TAXI (the best sitcom ever, sorry Seinfeld), is way too old to play an aged hippie... He would have been old enough during the 1960's to know better than to blow up buildings for the sake of peace... that's the plot, by the way: a family of radicals had "accidentally" maimed a janitor who just "happened to be there" when the bomb went off, and they've been on the run ever since....

As has been mentioned, this is nothing else but a TV-movie; but, on the other hand, TV-movies are entertaining melodramas, and while River Phoenix is the only standout here along with mother Christine Lahti, again, Judd Hirsch was just a horrendous miscast... It's more difficult to believe that Judd is this blonde haired/uptturned nose kids dad than a revolutionary hippie...

The best scene involves the comparison to the good hippies and a bad one in which one of their former cohorts returns and wants to keep blowing up stuff... We get to see how good these people are in comparison, but they lack edge and aren't very interesting.

So underrated

[P00H-7 · 10/10 · 24 January 2002]

When I was 16, I used to hang out with a tough crowd and my best friend at the time was a real trouble maker, we would always get into fights with other guys our age and sometimes men, and he was a really tough kid, anyway one night he calls me and tells me that he watched the saddest movie he had ever seen, he said it was the first time he actually cried since he saw E.T. I was laughing at him continuously, until I watched it and got so profoundly effected by it that even thinking about that last scene makes my eyes water. I really feel that this film was a major catalyst for many changes I made during my progression from teenager to young adult.

Running on Empty is quite an achievement in filmmaking, it is as real a film as you could watch and everyone involved should be absolutely proud of it. River Phoenix will forever be missed.

running on empty

[mossgrymk · 7/10 · 25 February 2022]

The title kind of mirrors my reaction to this well written, well acted (with one exception noted below), sensitive drama. This is the third time I've seen it and it's not wearing particularly well. Maybe it's that I'm getting older and more conservative and thus find it harder to sympathize, let alone empathize, with a Weather Underground couple. Or maybe it's that when you take Sidney Lumet out of the world of NYC institutional corruption you render him kind of ordinary ("The Hill" honorably excepted). For whatever reason I found scenes that I once considered moving...the father/daughter exchange between Christine Lahti and Steven Hill in the restaurant and Lahti's birthday party..to be on the cloying, even hokey, side. Actually, the parts that have aged best for me do not involve the radical parents but rather the River Phoenix/ Martha Plimpton relationship. Lumet's directorial pacing and Naomi Foner's dialogue in these parts seem to be more relaxed and not trying to push the film's relentless and obvious point that the 60s are dead but, instead, simply depict two intelligent, interesting people of different socio economic backgrounds falling in love.

Three things that have not changed for me about this film are the rather undistinguished cinematography that gives it a TV movie-ish look, the desire to shake producer/writer Foner for titling the film after a Jackson Browne song but not using him instead of sappy James Taylor to score the thing, and the usual Hambone 101 performance of Judd Hirsch.

Bottom line: Maybe in ten years, when I'm in my second childhood, I'll love this film again. B minus.

Misguided Parents

[romanorum1 · 6/10 · 25 April 2014]

There is a dichotomy with this movie: Parents have rebuffed authority but demand complete obedience from their children. The "Pope" family consists of a father (Arthur = Judd Hirsch), a mother (Annie = Christine Lahti), and two young sons (River Phoenix and Jonas Abry). The parents have been on the lam from American authorities since 1971, when, as college students they belonged to an underground left wing violent activist group (like the Weather Underground). They bombed a napalm laboratory to protest the Vietnam War, seriously injuring a janitor in the process. As they are not accountable for their actions, they change their names and run away from place to place. Not only do the parents fabricate stories, they force their children to follow suit. When the Feds eventually close in, they pack up quickly and evacuate. In a very early movie scene, as they escape the grasp of authorities, they heartlessly abandon their family dog in a busy parking lot. They assume that someone will pick him up. I wish they could have dropped the little critter off to an animal shelter along the way, but it was not to be. While the fugitive parents may love their sons, they are plainly selfish. As they force their growing children to continually change their names, addresses, personal histories, how can these kids grow up normally? And that is, of course, the gist of the movie. Problems arise as the older son, Danny (River Phoenix) is coming of college age. There needs to be stability here. Because of the constant changing of schools, his academic records are not available. Danny is a talented pianist, a fact which often brings in unwanted attention. As lie upon lie piles on, it is almost impossible to get Danny a college education. His personal conflict is that, even if he gets into the college of his choice, Julliard, he may never see his parents again.

The situation gets even more complicated when Danny falls in love with Lorna (Martha Plimpton) at his latest high school (in New Jersey). More situations arise, and when the ending comes, it is a bit of a tearjerker. But it is difficult for this writer to sympathize with the uncompromising parents (particularly the father) who care little about the fateful consequences of their extreme actions. But we continually root for the "normalcy" of Danny and his little brother.

"Running on Empty" is sensitively produced and directed; it is not an expensive film. The performances of the major actors are excellent. And catch that poignant restaurant scene when Annie Pope meets her father (Steven Hill) for the first time in many years. Now the feature does not justify the lawless actions of the parents although some sympathy filters through to them. A plus is James Taylor's fine recording, "Fire and Rain." The real tragedy is that River Phoenix, a remarkably talented young actor, did not live beyond age 23. What a waste!

A joy to watch, every time.

[Euphorbia · 10/10 · 7 September 2002]

I have dozens of movies on videotape, but if I could only keep one, Running on Empty would be it. I've lost count how many times I've watched it. It works on every level. Emotionally, you cannot help caring about the characters, all of them. The premise, living "underground" in ordinary American suburbia, is brilliant and instantly engaging. The story, coming of age on the lam, flows effortlessly, with hardly a slow spot, and keeps me engaged, even after umpteen viewings. The romance, of love and loss and dedication, brings a tear every time, even just thinking about the birthday party as I write this.

Plus -- I was a 'red diaper baby' who became a conservative republican 35 years ago, and this film touches every button of my past. A lot of those reds were, in person, truly decent people, just a bit deranged and extremely delusional and dogmatic, all of which Judd Hirsch conveys with perfect pitch. No special FX, pretty tame action (mostly involving music and dancing), only six main characters, but a great entertaining and inspirational film.

Rated 9.9 out of 10, in case something better ever comes along.

P.S. I just got the DVD. Even better than the tape. Elsewhere I have read complaints about its technical quality, but I can see nothing wrong with it.

magnetic River Phoenix

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 28 February 2015]

Teenager Danny Pope (River Phoenix) notices that people are following him and he initiates the family to go on the run again. His parents Annie (Christine Lahti) and Arthur (Judd Hirsch) had set fire to a weapons lab credited with creating Naplam in the sixties. The family including youngest son Harry find help from supporters as they set up new identities. Danny's piano talents intrigue music teacher Mr. Phillips who pushes him to audition for Juilliard. He also catches the eye of the teacher's daughter Lorna Phillips (Martha Plimpton). River Phoenix is simply magnetic and Martha Plimpton is sweetly compelling. They have terrific chemistry together in a dramatic coming-of-age movie. The father son relationship could have been pushed harder but it has many interesting moments. This is really a great showcase for a rising superstar.

Glorified television special.

[Degree7 · 5/10 · 25 August 2013]

The premise is something unique, and it's a wonder there aren't more films about fugitives coming to terms with lives based on lies.

But this just isn't a big or bold enough telling of such a story. Sure a lot of dramatic things happen along the way, but the writers try a little bit too hard to make the characters goody goody two shoes that need to be rooted for. There isn't exactly a lot of subtlety to the reason why this family is on the run. The family doesn't feel entirely believable as real people. There isn't a lot of faith placed in the viewer's interest. The writers felt that they had to make the parents just bad enough to warrant fugitive status from the FBI, but not so terrible that we lose all sympathy for them. They bombed a lab, but it was a GOVERNMENT lab making NAPALM. They hurt some people, but it was a JANITOR who was only MAIMED by ACCIDENT. How convenient, I hope you like rooting for the bleeding heart liberals. I just would have appreciated, as a viewer, a little bit more depth to their predicament.

Other problems were that the family just seemed a wee bit too smart for their own good. Surely a couple that has been on the run for 17 years would be resourceful enough to move to another country, especially with two kids in tow. It's not like they were bound to the US by virtue of staying to visit the grandparents every so often.

The cast is good, the chemistry is well played out between the actors, it's just the writing and line delivery that leaves something to be desired. There is only so much induced eye rolling from a particularly corny line or two. And in a subject as delicate as this, that is a death knell for any validity this film would have had.

Decent, but forgettable.

A Well-Acted, Powerful Story

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 24 May 2006]

I thought this was a powerful movie about '60s radicals on the lam for 14 years and a crisis that develops when the family's 17-year-old son is talented enough to enter Juliard School Of Music which means , because of identity problems, they may never see him again. Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti play the husband and wife and River Phoenix and Jonas Abry are their kids.

There is excellent acting in this film and particularly by young Phoenix. The story shows us a good portrait of what it must be like to live in hiding. Politically, people will view this movie as they think (conservative or liberal) because it could be viewed a number of ways.

To me, it showed the worst of what could have happened to young people in the '60s who believed they were doing the right thing but broke the law....and paid the consequence. The sad part, as this shows so vividly, is how it affects the rest of the family and others. I think the most powerful scene in the film is when Lahti meets her dad after 14 years in hiding: very, very emotional stuff and one of the most intense short talking scenes I've ever seen on film.

Really liked this one

[cathcacr · 8/10 · 26 May 2002]

Why this has an average rating of only 7.3 is beyond me. This is really darn good, maybe not a "masterpiece" as some of the other reviews have stated, but one of those criminally underrated and overlooked movies. And, heck, starring River Phoenix for crying out loud. Why had I never heard of it? Yeah, it's got a touch of cheesy '80s things about it (music, clothing, etc.) but I've learned to overlook that sort of thing if it's actually a good story. Take this and another coming-of-age movie, _This Boy's Life_ (starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio -- why hadn't I ever heard of that one either?), and you have a couple of the best great-but-underrated movies in recent memory. I'd love a good explanation for why this should only get a 7.3 out of 10, given the quality of a bunch of material with a higher average rating. (I thought 6.9 was the average rating here. This isn't even close to just average.) Compared to the body of Sidney Lumet's work, this has got to rank right up near the top, doesn't it?

A River Phoenix gem

[nabillaarsyafira · 7/10 · 27 November 2016]

I am honestly too riveted on River Phoenix to comment about anything else. He was like, the next generation James Dean. And a James Dean he was. I always think Phoenix, antemortem and postmortem both, resembles youth itself, a constant warzone between lethal solicitudes and all-conquering fierceness.

First of all, the guy was cool as hell. Effortlessly so. He couldn't have helped it, he was born pretty. That's kind of a package deal when you choose to put him on screen: his screen presence is so strong that everything else would be dissected, personified through his sophisticated outlook. He'd be the centerpiece, the eye of the hurricane. Then suddenly, it all escalates into an assessment of identity. And you can identify with that.

His signature specialties include the multifaceted ambiguity of his facial expressions and his innate magnetism. Had he not died I imagine he would've grown into a present day Leo di Caprio—if you know what I mean. An ever-evolving actor who keeps outstretching his limits despite, or perhaps even due to, his childhood acclaims.

The movie's got some Rebel Without a Cause vibe, although it goes to the opposite direction. It's well-acted, it has a clear vision about what kind of movie it wants to be, everything is executed in the right amount. And of course Phoenix is pitch perfect in it.

I really wish I could see every single thing he might've stored for us up his sleeve, but his death immortalized his youth, and I guess I can live with that.

7/10.

A quiet masterpiece

[hunterlh · 10/10 · 26 May 2002]

Running on Empty explores the familial relationships so crucial to identity formation. Annie Pope (Christine Lahti) transmits to son Danny (River Phoenix) her musical gift, but also imbues him with an exceptional sensitivity and appreciation of beauty. But her own life has gone disastrously astray because of her misguided attempt to protest the manufacturing of napalm, used by American forces in the Vietnam War. She and her husband (Judd Hirsch) blow up a chemical plant and, in the process, seriously injure a janitor. The guilt and lawlessness of the event cause Annie to miss out on the promise of her own life.

Running on Empty chronicles her childrens' struggle to learn from their gifted, beautiful yet ultimately troubled parents without sinking from the mistakes of the earlier generation. It is a timeless story that will continue to have relevance for all generations. For Running on Empty explores one of the mysteries of life. How do we learn from our elders without destroying ourselves because of their flaws and mistakes?

Not only is the theme rich and deep, the execution of Running on Empty is flawless. Christine Lahti and River Phoenix, particularly, give moving performances. The filmmakers know how to use music and the sparse, haunting score and use of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" are perfect.

If you have a mother or a father, a grandmother or a grandfather...and they are imperfect yet still deserving of love and respect, this is a movie for you.

Almost a Perfect Film - Running on Empty

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 1 September 2021]

There are so many wonderful performances in this film, that it is difficult to decide which one to begin with; but let's start with River Phoenix. What a horrible loss to the film industry, but even more tragically, what a horrible loss to his older brother, Joaquin, and the rest of the Phoenix family. I know a little about losses like this. River was outstanding in his role. As was Hirsh and Lahti. I am opposed to violence of any kind; but this story of Weatherman-type anarchists who blew up a lab for military research during the Vietnam era stuck a chord with me. The dialogue is thoughtful and genuine, and the situations are tragic. You must see this film, regardless of your political beliefs.

Pure Brilliance!

[namashi_1 · 10/10 · 3 May 2018]

The Late/Great Sidney Lumet was a filmmaker, who tackled various genres, with the distinctiveness, only a few filmmakers have achieved. He wasn't just a director, he was a man with a voice. And with 'Running on Empty', Lumet depicts Family in its truest & harshest form. And of course, The Late/Great River Phoenix is beyond excellence.

'Running on Empty' Synopsis: The eldest son of a fugitive family comes of age and wants to live a life of his own.

'Running on Empty' isn't merely a tale about fugitives, its a tale, of family, bond & coming of age. Lumet, the master, presents a brutally honest story about a family running away from nothingness, until the eldest son realizes his righteous voice. And Lumet is up for the claps, as he exuberantly captures the restlessness of youth. Naomi Foner's Award-Winning Screenplay is genius. The Writing is at times, about nothing, and at times, about everything. Also, the sub-plot involving Phoenix's love-interest (played by Martha Plimpton) glues in wonderfully. The Writing takes each step with care & the result overall, is top-notch. Lumet's Direction is perfection. Cinematography & Editing are admirable.

Performance-Wise: River Phoenix is extraordinary. His portrayal of a young boy coming of age & trying to break-free from his family's mistakes, is one for the ages. One of the most naturals actors ever, Phoenix who left us 25 years ago, was a performer with the strength of a true heavyweight. And in Lumet's hands, Phoenix left us spell-bound. Judd Hirsch, a legend in his own right, is fabulous, as always. I've never come across a single bad performance by Hirsch & I'd like to believe, that there are none. Christine Lahti is remarkably restrained; her sequence with her father, is truly commendable. Martha Plimpton shines, in one her earliest & finest performances to date.

On the whole, 'Running on Empty' is a force. This Is Essential Viewing.

sensitive direction, talented cast, adequate script

[mjneu59 · 6/10 · 31 December 2010]

Two erstwhile radical activists, still at large fifteen years after a 1971 protest bombing (which left an innocent bystander accidentally maimed), do what they can to maintain their values while raising their children as fugitives. From a purely demographic standpoint it's a crafty scenario, designed to appeal not only to a generation fondly recalling the idealism of its youth, but also to teenage viewers ready to identify with oldest son River Phoenix's frustrating coming of age and independence. The script captures perfectly all the die-hard attitudes of aging hippies (it must have been written from experience), but the plot offers little more than a series of dramatic one-on-one confrontations, between mother and son, father and son, mother and father, son and girlfriend, and so forth. Sidney Lumet's direction is all but invisible, making the film no more challenging than a topical made-for-television movie, and placing the burden of the drama squarely on a first-rate cast more than able to shoulder the load.

Being a radical is a lousy way to live

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 14 January 2002]

Excellent drama dealing with a pair of liberal/radical world savers many years after their serious brush with the FBI. All the lofty ideals which drove them to their act of insanity isn't helping them a bit as family life deteriorates with the passing of time. I sympathized with their 2 children, but could marshall zero positive feelings the loving, caring, tender hearted parents; these 2 nuts belonged in a cell, period.

Nope.

[hemisphere65-1 · 5/10 · 9 December 2020]

Nobody cares, but the writing is weak. The Gus character is a lame McGuffin. Arthur must have started college at 30 and forgot to attend acting school. The dialogue between the teens is far from believable. Predictable is an understatement! Finally, the incidental music sounds like it was taken from a different movie. I'm shocked that so many people rave about this movie.

Outrageous!!!!

[pdlp · 26 February 1999]

I am not gonna say too much, but this is one of the best movies ever made, River Phoenix, deserved the award a lot more than Kevin Kline. Maybe River was young and they thought he will have many other chances to do it, unfortunately you never know and now River is no longer with us. So I think that the members of the Academy should consider this, like when Leo DiCaprio was nominated for Gilbert Grape. Anyway, this is a MUST see movie, it´s definitely a classic!

excellent film

[007535 · 9/10 · 1 June 2006]

Having recently become interested in the work of River Phoenix, I decided to spend almost the entirety of my allowance on the best of his films. After The Mosquito Coast, My Own Private Idaho and Stand By Me, I was expecting great things from Running On Empty. I wasn't disappointed, being very touched by this film, and remarkably found myself crying during the final scene. The film has an interesting plot line; that of a family on the run from the law, while showing the impact on the children; and was something I felt hadn't been done well before. Concentrating largely on the experiences and reflections of the family's eldest son, Danny, the audience can really relate to events within the film. It boasts strong performances by the leads, of course especially the ceaselessly brilliant River Phoenix. Martha Plimpton was also very convincing as the love interest with attitude, and their chemistry was undeniable. Some moments were clichéd and unnecessary; the inclusion of an ex-comrade and war activist who tests Annie Pope's loyalty to her husband seemed rather contrived and out of place. Overall, however, there were many warm moments in an understated, well-written film. I wouldn't recommend viewing for everyone; the film is slow in comparison to modern offerings, but if you're interested in romance, drama, or even just River Phoenix this is definitely a must-see movie.

Subtle, grossly underrated masterpiece from Sidney Lumet..

[KMW2000 · 10/10 · 8 October 2001]

No one makes movies like Sidney Lumet. The man is (in my opinion) one of the greatest directors in the history of film. For evidence see "Dog Day Afternoon", "Network", "Twelve Angry Men", "Q & A", "Serpico" (the list goes on and on..) One of the truly exceptional things about Lumet is that he understands and respects actors, and due to this, always, without fail, gets first rate performances from the actors he works with. (Notice also that all the actors have nothing but gratuitous praise for him as a director. There is a mutual appreciation there.) Read his book "Making Movies" if you're really not convinced of his genius. However, going by the excellence of this film, "Running On Empty", I honestly don't see how you could see him as anything but.

Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti both give wonderful performances as the ex-radicals on the run from the FBI for 17 years (and the worried parents of two fast-growing-up boys,) but the undoubted star of the picture is (a then 18-year-old) River Phoenix as their eldest son. Phoenix plays Danny Pope, a 17-year-old boy on the verge of adulthood, who's never known a life not lived in constant fear of being discovered. Who, for all his young life, has moved from town to town with his parents and younger brother, changing schools, homes, and identity at each stop, so as not to be located by the government and punished for the acts his parents committed before he was born.

The film concentrates on the latest identity, the latest stop on the Pope families' never-ending quest to evade the law. This stop, as one eventually had to be, is different. Phoenix's character falls in love with a girl (played by Phoenix's real life girlfriend at the time, Martha Plimpton) and wants to stay. A move that would mean breaking up the family, the one thing that his father simply cannot accept as a possibility. On top of this, Phoenix is offered a place at the prestigious Juilliard school of music (being a prodigiously talented piano player) which presents another good reason for him to stay.

The unique family dynamic is brilliantly portrayed. The tension, the strong bond of love, and the eventual acceptance (that every parent has to deal with at some point) of letting go of one's children. It's all there, and it's all handled so subtly, so poignantly, so BRILLIANTLY.

River Phoenix's performance ranks among the best I've ever seen from a young actor in my life. If you can picture a subtle mix of some of the best aspects of James Dean and a young Henry Fonda and you're coming close to what Phoenix achieved here.

'Running On Empty' is a classic example of great, poignant, affecting, emotional film making (and acting) and I give it 10/10. Without hesitation.

Subterranean Homesick Blues

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 9 November 2009]

"After antiwar activists Annie and Arthur Pope (Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) blew up a napalm lab in 1971, they became lifelong fugitives. They and their children have stayed just one step ahead of the law, running from state to state, job to job, identity to identity. But now elder son Danny (River Phoenix) wants to stop running from a past not his. And to do so, he might never see his on-the-lam family again.

"Directed by Sidney Lumet, from Naomi Foner's 'Golden Globe Award'-winning screenplay, this powerful, bittersweet movie also stars Martha Plimpton and Steven Hill, and earned acting honors for the emotional performances of Lahti ('Los Angeles Film Critics Best Actress Award') and Phoenix (named 'Best Supporting Actor' by the 'National Board of Review')," according to the DVD sleeve description.

This film doesn't tout itself as being "based on a true story," but writer Naomi Foner seems to have been inspired by Bill Ayers and his "Weather Underground". Supporting a non-peaceful protest of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon's escalation of the Vietnam War, the group specialized in the bombing of sites related to the war effort - without human casualty; but, in "Running on Empty", the protesters blind a janitor.

The film's performances are a highlight, as was noted by wins and nominations among movie award-giving groups; they considered River Phoenix the "Supporting Actor" in the drama, but he clearly handles the starring role. River is deliberate in the role - tucking in the front of his tee-shirt, and doing a "duck walk" guitar dance - later, he and director Lumet bring the young actor's personal sensitivity to an excellent finale.

Lahti is even more extraordinary; she is perfect as the mother - and, more importantly, she is the one member of the on-screen players who makes the story most believable. Lahti is, singularly, learned but spontaneous throughout. She holds the story together. It might have been a nice idea to develop the relationship between Lahti's character and Kit Carson (as Gus Winant), confirming he is Danny's biological father.

"Running on Empty" is not Lumet's greatest directorial achievement, in a mechanical sense; herein, his work is better evidenced by the performances he elicits. Judd Hirsch (as Arthur Pope), Jonas Abry (as Harry), and Martha Plimpton (as (Lorna Phillips) bring some great family chemistry to the cast. Finally, due to his untimely death, watching River emote with James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" in your brain is positively prescient.

******* Running on Empty (9/7/88) Sidney Lumet ~ River Phoenix, Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, Martha Plimpton

RUNNING ON EMPTY is in essence a well-meaning, good-natured encomium of family value and altruistic sacrifice

[lasttimeisaw · 8/10 · 26 October 2017]

A pair of anti-war radicals on the run with their nuclear family, Annie and Arthur Pope (Lahti and Hirsch) are answerable for a napalm laboratory bombing in the 70s (with one casualty of injury), designated as an anti-Vietnam war protestation, and have been lying low with new identities every once in a while henceforth, until their eldest son Danny (Phoenix) reaches 17, a watershed is laying out, some big decision needs to contemplate by both parties.

In Sidney Lumet's RUNNING ON EMPTY, River Phoenix starts his transition from child stardom to the perilous adult world, this is his only Oscar-nominated performance, although it is vexingly shunted to the supporting category as the default victim of the Academy's inherent bias towards tender-year performers or newcomers. Here, he is the bedrock of the movie, a piano prodigy in his making (hereditary from the mother side), but he cannot be forever cocooned in his family's unorthodox lifestyle, and the irony is pretty on the nose, this damning society is rife with all things against Annie and Arthur's counterculture tenets, yet in the context, there seems to be no better alternative at their disposal, making him a fugitive for something he hasn't perpetrated? That is just unfair, thus it is almost imperative that Danny must be released from the clutches albeit he is disposed to stick with the status quo in the end before bid farewell to his girlfriend Lorna (Plimpton, very good in her tomboyish, cool-girl complexion), whom he is besotted with.

There is certainly a waft of elitism in the air, Danny is wanted by Juilliard, so how can any compos mentis parents thumb their noses at that proposition, which leaves them no choice but to cut their deeply bonded familial cord, it is very intriguing if there is a sequel to cover Danny's grown-up years, to see whether his parents' sacrifice is worthwhile. Apart from that, it is a thoroughly judicious melodrama and Lumet's low-key directorial gesture successfully elicits Phoenix's most touching persona as a youngster on the cusp of adulthood, whose caring nature is torn between the obligation to his family and a new world suddenly opens to him.

The whole close-knit cast has done a cracking job, Judd Hirsch, although one can hardly condone that him and Phoenix are cutting from the same family tree from their physical appearances, pulls off an earnest father and an activist with ardor, whereas, Christine Lahti is viscerally sublime in her Janus-faced versatility: checking the scenes where Annie pseudo-cavalierly converses with Danny's teacher and later a lachrymose tête-à-tête with her own father for the first time in 15 years, that is the testimonial.

Sensibly filleting the more sensitive political agenda (there are worms in their noble cause too) which is concomitant with the story-line, RUNNING ON EMPTY is in essence a well-meaning, good-natured encomium of family value and altruistic sacrifice, only its rushed finale (at least the logistics team could have packed some items in their departing truck considering they are fleeing from the place for keeps), hits like a fly in the ointment in a hearty 80s tale, incidentally, if the same story happens in a CCTV-rampant age like today, the family's fly-by-night endeavor will definitely not last such a protracted length to even face their offspring's growing pains.