Gal Gadot is back in action hero mode in The Runner, a mid-range suspense thriller from director Kevin Macdonald, which is now streaming on Prime Video. While it’s certainly nothing groundbreaking, it’s an easy way to pass about 80-minutes or so.
Gadot, who has never had another role quite like Wonder Woman, plays a successful attorney named Maia in this new action film. She must try to save her son, Noah (Rory Wilmot), from the wrath of a supposed evil madman (voiced by Damian Lewis) as the plot sets itself into motion.
An unsolicited phone call with the crazy guy on the other end (voiced well by Lewis) drives much of the action here.
Most of The Runner involves Maia -you guessed it- running. She’s running through London, and taking trains to different places. Maia is getting the raw end of the stick most of the time in her efforts to obtain knowledge that pertains to the exact whereabouts of her son.
Maia needs to use her wits to survive as the madman gives her instructions over the phone. When she tries to take passerby’s phones in order to contact help, things don’t exactly go as planned, which complicates her attempts to beat the caller at his own game.
Gadot has a juicy leading role in The Runner. There’s a backstory surrounding Maia’s mother that is quite interesting, if not satisfactorily developed enough throughout the picture.
Lewis is menacing as the caller, who seems to know more about our main character, Maia, than she actually realizes about herself.
There are plenty of plot twists that will keep audiences riveted here, even if movies like this have been done before. Remember the Colin Farrell film, Phone Booth, with Kiefer Sutherland on the other end of the phone?
There are some enjoyable scenes sprinkled into The Runner. One has Maia losing her phone to some pickpockets on a moving train. She loses them when she gets off the train, and then pursues them in order to get her phone back with results that will certainly satisfy the viewer.
As the police are in hot pursuit of Maia, the plot gets heavy-handed as one may expect, but this movie has that Hitchockian suspense to it, which makes it worthwhile in the end for less demanding movie-goers.
As for the final reveals that the storyline has up its sleeve, some of them work better than others. This is a movie that could have worked better with less twisty plot details as the chase is the most exciting aspect of the movie.
Gadot’s character runs for a lot of the film, and she sustains injuries throughout the picture. She’s very well-conceived, and it’s not Gadot’s fault that the movie could have used a more action-driven, yet also slightly more in-depth, script to back up the actress’s versatile talents.
Had this movie tightened some of its script highlights, it could have worked as a big-screen thriller. As it is, it’s an acceptable movie to stream, but it could have been so much more.
The Runner exists to remind us that Gal Gadot is a wonderful talent, capable of so much more than appearing in movies like this one.
It’s hard to fault Gadot. She’s always had a lot of charisma as a dramatic performer. Wonder Woman made her a huge star, and she’s had trouble finding the type of follow-up role to do her unique talents justice.
While you’re waiting for the next Wonder Woman movie, you may want to watch Gadot in The Runner. This new picture serves as proof that Gadot is great in her action hero mode, and that’s why this film suggests another Wonder Woman movie should be expedited into production.
The Runner is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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Thomas Duffy
Thomas Duffy is a Critics Choice member who has written film reviews for most of his life, starting at age 11 when he crafted his first full length movie critique on the film, "Roxanne," a Cyrano story featuring Steve Martin. As a result of that review and other movie obsessive writing, Thomas was awarded a creative writing award in sixth grade. Thomas is the proud author of nine books, including two highly acclaimed novels, "To Never Know" and "Social Work." Thomas can be found on X (formerly known as Twitter) or at a New York City movie theater watching the latest hit or independent movie. You can also run into him at Tribeca or at the New York Film Festival.