Run Sweetheart Run Is An Effective Thriller, Eventually {Review}

Run Sweetheart Run was a very timely film when it started its festival run in early 2020, but it took another two and a half years to be released. Now on Amazon Prime Video, it is a thriller that ultimately works and is held together by a fantastic performance by lead Ella Balinska. Almost campy in nature for part of its runtime, there are a few too many tonal shifts that needed fixing in the editing room, but overall the story works and will be an entertaining watch.

Run Sweetheart Run Can Is A Surreal Watch

Balinska plays Cherie, who is forced to go on a date with her boss’s (Clark Gregg) client Ethan (Pilou Asbæk) when he forgets he has a dinner with his wife (Betsy Brandt) as well. The two go to dinner and have instant chemistry. They then go roller skating together before he invites her to her place for a nightcap. We never see what happens, though, as we stop at the door. Soon, Cherie bursts back through after having been attacked by Ethan, a wound on her head. He proceeds to chase her through Los Angeles as more and more people ignore her pleas for help, as the night descends into complete chaos.

There is not much subtlety going on here, as director Shana Feste really hammers home the deaf ears that a lot of women’s experiences are heard by. The film opens with Cherie reporting sexual harassment to an HR department that cannot be bothered, to be being asked to go on a date with a client, and ultimately trying to find someone to help her when she is attacked. Balinska really does a wonderful job in the film and really makes you root for her, even when the film falls off the reality cliff in the final act.

This is the main problem with Run Sweetheart Run; it is trying to be too many things at once, sometimes a rom-com, sometimes a cat-and-mouse thriller, and sometimes an uncomfortable comedy. The transitions are very jarring, pulling you away from what is happening on screen. It also feels very much like a film that should not have sat on a shelf for eighteen months before seeing release. Had this come out as intended, it would have made a much bigger impact.

Sadly, Run Sweetheart Run is a film with important things to say, just a muddy way of getting them delivered. While it completely derails by the end, stay for Balinska’s performance and the LA at-night creepiness vibe of the film’s second half. There was a lot to like here, but something got lost in the translation.

Run Sweetheart Run

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Review by Jeremy Konrad

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6/10

Run Sweetheart Run is carried by a wonderful performance from its lead, but ultimately feels like too many films smashed into one another.