Running on Empty (1988)

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Piper Halliwell (San Francisco, California) | 03/29/2006 |
River Phoenix At His Best

Aside from River Phoenix possibly needing a haircut, this was an amazing movie, and certainly an original one. It shows Phoenix as he should have been seen more often: center stage, in the lead role. He was a fantastic actor with much to give, but was so rarely allowed to show it.

In a family very close, but fraying at the edges, Danny Pope longs to have a normal life and just stay in one place for a while. He has been moving around the country and changing his name since he was two years old because his parents blew up a napalm factory. He finds that the perfect place to stay is a town called Waterford. People recognize his talent on the piano, and he is recommended for Juilliard. But his father, wanting to keep the family together, will not have it. He says they are moving again, though the FBI hasn't even gotten close yet.

Danny, desperate not to have to leave his girlfriend and give up his dream, politely asks to stay. His father, not surprisingly, refuses.

But in the end, when they are about to leave, Danny's dad tells him to go to his maternal grandparents. His mother had already made arrangements.

Sad but grateful, Danny watches them drive off with his younger brother Harry, singing 'Fire and Rain,' and knowing that, once the FBI finds out who he really is, he will probably never see his parents again.

Yes, this at first seemingly impossible situation is made very real by all of the sides being represented perfectly, and everything explained down to a T. Things aren't always sad or harried in the Pope household, and despite attempting to be, the parents are not unfailing optomists. A down-to-Earth approach was the best technique, and made this one of the better movies I've seen lately.

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