This review originally appeared on Capital New York.
Will Forte is well-known to American audiences from Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and his appearances on “Conan,” makes his dramatic debut in Run & Jump, an Irish film about a 38-year-old stroke victim named Conor Casey (Edward MacLiam) who returns home to his wife and two kids with a completely altered personality.
Forte plays Ted Fielding, an American brain researcher writing a paper about Conor. Ted gets permission from the family to live in their home for a time, writing his book and observing Conor re-learning how to speak, interact and relate.
Directed by Steph Green (it is her first feature, although her short New Boy was nominated for an Oscar in 2007), Run & Jump has the potential for pitfalls, which Green (and screenwriter, Ailbhe Keogan) avoid. It could have been played for melodrama or sentimentality at every turn, but it isn’t. Instead, it is a sensitive and often quite funny look at what Conor’s re-entry does to his wife Vanetia (the wonderful red-headed Maxine Peake), and his two young children. Meanwhile, the interloper (Forte) in their midst follows Conor around with a cam-corder. Vanetia says, “I was worried about letting a hypothesis into the house.”
The family welcomes Conor back excitedly, and try to adjust to “New Dad.” He is sullen, argumentative, and does not interact. He was a successful furniture-maker, and he now spends all his time in his workshop making wooden spheres.
The family awkwardly adjusts to the American researcher living in the spare room, joining them at their family dinners, always observing. Ted tries to keep his distance, but fails. Vanetia, a survivor of a certain very Irish sensibility, confides in Ted, “I hate pity.” She is especially annoyed at a woman who works at the local market who overwhelms her with smothering concern. Vanetia sees her coming and murmurs to Ted, “Look out, here comes Sympathy Susan.”
With Conor absent emotionally, there is a vacuum in the home, and Vanetia and Ted are drawn to one another. At first, they discuss Conor’s case, and his recovery process. But slowly, over the course of Run & Jump, a closer bond develops. This situation is handled sensitively and subtly, so we understand what is happening. Grief and loss affect people in unforeseen ways, and although Vanetia is not a complainer, and has no thought of divorcing Conor or anything like that, she is lonely. She’s a fun-loving person, an involved mother. She misses her partner. She says to Ted at one point, “When Conor and I looked at something, we saw the same thing.” Ted, almost invisibly, starts to take that place in her life. Friends and family notice the bond, and try to speak to Vanetia about it, warning her off.
A less confident film would have driven the story into the familiar territory of a breathless sneak-around extramarital affair, pumped up for the fear factor of being caught. But Vanetia is made of stronger stuff than that, as is Ted. The scenes between the two of them, drinking beers and listening to music late at night in the quiet house, or taking bike rides in the rain, are lovely, and filled with the relief of letting off some steam as well as allowing space for poignant sadness.
The cause of Vanetia’s sadness is obvious. Her husband is no longer the man he was. Ted’s sadness is harder to name, mainly because he is such an uptight humorless guy at first. Sitting at the dinner table with this boisterous family loosens him up. He takes to it. He starts to love them all.
As Ted becomes more and more involved with not just Conor, but every member of the family, the film shows its hand. Perhaps Vanetia’s family is right to be concerned.
Will Forte is wonderful and unexpected in the role. Maxine Peake is terrific, bowled over by the tragedy that has befallen her, and yet unable to feel sorry for herself or to allow others into her own sadness. She sits in the car practicing something she read in a magazine called “Laughter Yoga,” and it is completely absurd and human. Watching Forte and Peake talk about things and listen to music and tentatively start to reach out to one another is one of the main pleasures of the film.
Filmed in gorgeous County Kerry (with, sadly, not a lot of exteriors), Run & Jump is a minor miracle in the way it avoids convention and formula. There are certain sequences — a family trip to the zoo, for example– where Run & Jump slows down, allows us to breathe, spend time with these characters. We visit the animals, sit at the picnic tables, witness the joy the family is trying to capture.
Run & Jump has great respect for all of its characters, and the script is smart enough to leaven the mood with jokes and humor. These people are, after all, Irish. Vanetia’s line about looking at something with her husband and knowing they saw the same thing is important. Run & Jump is about the powerful heady experience of what it is like to be seen.
