THE STORY – Mort discovers he has less than a year to live. After his fiancé leaves him, he meets Kate on a dating service that matches people by their death dates, all while being stalked by a crazy pimp.
THE CAST – Keir Gilchrist, Lucy Hale, Francesca Eastwood, Rhys Coiro, Jay Pharoah, Dustin Milligan, Dylan Flashner, Lisa Yaro, Monica Potter & Jim Gaffigan
THE TEAM – Daniel André (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 91 Minutes
Even if they don’t admit it, everyone’s a little fascinated by death and or interested. Or curious. It is the one element of life we all go through, yet we have no idea how or when it will occur. We go through life as if we are immortal until we are forcibly reminded of how finite our time is. The concept of death and – more importantly – one’s ever-decreasing time on Earth is a fascinating concept that many artists have used as the basis for many science-fiction stories. Films like “In Time,” “Gattaca,” and “Minority Report” quickly come to mind. It’s a futile concept that can springboard many entertaining films that can take on many subgenres. And it is this concept that Daniel André uses within his directorial feature debut, “Running on Empty.”
Our protagonist, Mort (Keir Gilchrist), is a mortician who lives in a world where one has the ability to discover one’s death date or Life Day Count (LDC for short). It is so important that people are strongly encouraged to know it, as it will be a deciding factor in their lives, much like a credit score or social security number. Therefore, Mort and his fiance get theirs done in order to purchase a house. Mort’s fiance, Nicole (Francesca Eastwood), is predicted to live for another 60 years. But based on Mort’s results, he has less than a year left. Nicole quickly dumps him and struggles to cope with the fact that he, at 25, is most likely in the last year of his life. In order to cheer him up, his friend recommends signing up for a dating company that matches people with similar LDC dates. But in lieu of going on several uninspiring dates, he accidentally meets a sex worker in a bar and gets into trouble with her pimp.
What makes “Running on Empty” a challenge to watch is its strange and unnatural tone. It is evident that André, who also serves as the film’s writer, is attempting a dark comedy, but none of that is reflected in the final piece. Barely any jokes land and the screenplay is so one-dimensional that it results in hollow and valueless performances. The screenplay is less composed as a full feature narrative; instead, it feels like it is a combination of several short scenes about the concept of life and one’s time on Earth. Additionally, each narrative branch has an entirely different tone from the other, and the film as a whole never successfully congeals into one organized narrative. These two grand errors result in an unenjoyable experience that provides little catharsis from Mort’s story or the film’s larger concept.
But what makes it more frustrating is that when the film slows down, leaves all the absurdity aside, and focuses on Mort’s budding relationship with Kate (Lucy Hale), a kind employee at the dating service, the film becomes much more enjoyable. Gilchrist and Hale have great chemistry and really allow André’s themes of interest to shine as they talk about their own values and goals for their young lives, even if Mort’s is ending soon. The romance between Mort and Kate is by far the film’s strongest and most engaging element of the film so much so that it is frustrating when this plotline gets pulled into the larger story that is uninspiring and wacky because it sucks all of the naturalness out of the duo.
Everyone wants to know how or when they will die. Even if they don’t, a little piece of them is at least curious. Therefore, the concept behind “Running on Empty” is a strong, compelling, and relevant theme to be discussed in the film. Unfortunately, the film is too foolish, uninspired, and irrational for its own good. This is a shame, considering the fact that it does have a strong anchor in Hale and Gilchrist’s relationship and their performances within the scenes they share. But unfortunately, this relationship, and overall film, is smuggled by a surface-level and ludicrous narrative that brings them down.
