Would you want to be informed of the exact date you’re going to die? That’s a thought that poses a real dilemma. Suppose you find out you are going to die at an old age. This would make plans for retirements and trips easy. But what if the circumstances were the opposite? Because you might die before a year without ever meeting that perfect person or going on that incredible trip. In that case, what do you do? Would you try to live every moment or would you sulk over what time is left? What’s a man like Mortimer the mortician to do?
“Running on Empty” (not to be confused with the former classic of Sidney Lumet or the song with the same name by Jackson Browne) starts from that idea, but quickly becomes a string of tired, prick jokes and even more tired gags, wooden and lifeless performances that make it look like the actors and actresses knew this version was dead on arrival, trite and insipid dialogue that would’ve embarrassed its speaker if at a Starbucks, let alone enduring for close to one and half hours.
Beyond the plot, which is its only redeeming feature, there is hardly anything of worth to take away from the movie, and like a protracted mourning in mid-afternoon, nothing is surprising about the conclusion either.
Mortimer (Keir Gilchrist) is a mortician (sorry, funeral director) working in the family Mortuary business, in the San Fernando Valley together with his ‘somewhat creepy’ uncle Barry (Jim Gaffigan). After mort buying a house with his conventionally hot fiancée Nicole (Francesca Eastwood), the couple goes to a clinic to learn the date when they expect to die. The good news for Nicole is that she is expected to reach a ripe old age for a woman. The bad news for Mort is that, well, he is going to die in less than twelve months. Nicole breaks up with him, leading him on a troubled journey of understanding how he can spend the last days on the planet in the best possible way. During this, he encounters sympathetic Kate (Lucy Hale) and a terrible ‘working’ Simon (Rhys Coiro), who often returns to Mort and comes for more money.
“Running on Empty” as written and directed by Daniel André has to be one of the dullest romantic comedies one can ever watch.
The premise is indeed the one pleasant aspect of the film, however as Mort’s unfortunate circumstances seem to multiply, just as how speed dating would in the case of Mort meeting some of los Angeles’ terrible bachelorettes, and even repeated meetings with Simon become monotonous, I found the impression to be quite the reverse as Mort’s time on planet Earth becomes more and more precious. André has to find laughter in the monotony of disappointing moments because his character simply keeps on having a rough time throughout all hours of the night. There are hints of Martin Scorsese’s “After hours” in “Running on empty” but the pace and creativity of such moments was so missing that it became impossible to associate such times with Mort’s race against time and death in any meaningful context.
There is no sense of emotion when it comes to him as he tries to deliver the lines, even when the scene would need some kind of tension, making it feel as though the events are stylish but lacking substance, “I love it when I am provoked”. This leads me to believe that Mort may not be the most detailed character anyway, as we haven’t seen any depth on this character even from the very beginning of the film. But he looked disinterested, and likewise, I felt a lack of interest as well.
Ironically, Nicole is also a rather 2D character on purpose, but there is a much more nuanced version of Kate who is written as a collage of various iterations of Ramona Flower sans the depth of character or motivation.
Yet at least Hale makes an effort to inject some humor into the story, something that even Gaffigan’s Barry or Jay Pharoah, who plays Mort’s colleague Sid, manage to avoid. She’s spirited and bubbly while most of the cast seem to be in a state of daze throughout the film. It will not redeem the movie or its conversations, but it is a breath of fresh air.
Regrettably, several comedic efforts go by the name of “Running on Empty” that attempt to create a narrative, but none succeed. With the monotony of ineffective performances, stale jokes, revolting comedy, plain set design, and outstanding lines such as ‘So Simon says…. ‘, I could feel my life passing me by. There is hardly anything to “Running on Empty” which attempts to redeem itself with the stretch of a screen and thus, stays true to its title.
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