Running on Empty Dreams

Running on Empty Dreams caused me literal pain. I rolled my eyes so often during this goddamn movie that I think I strained something.

Running on Empty Dreams focuses on Sydney, a young mother whose husband is an ex-marine. Sydney is experienced hand tremors and weakness which turn out to be from thyroid cancer. A t the start of the film, Sydney and her family move into a new neighbourhood. Despite her husband Corey’s new promotion, Sydney’s family still experiences financial difficulties which causes Corey to work away from home often. Feeling disconnected from her husband, Sydney bonds with the next door neighbour, another young mother named Jane. Sydney and Jane fall in love, blah blah sad caner stuff, Corey’s an asshole blah blah blah, Sydney dies.

This movie seems to believe that the way to make a good drama is just heap more and more sad shit on its characters. Sydney has cancer, marriage difficulties, financial woes and general depression. The movie takes it as a given that its audience will feel an emotion about these subjects and doesn’t spend a lot of time developing them. There’s rarely build-up to these sad events nor does the film linger on such scenes. It ends up that the movie only lacks emotional resonance but feels shallow. Even Sydney dying seems glossed over. We only see it after the fact. There’s no truth in Running on Empty Dreams. It doesn’t offer insight or even sympathy about topics like serious illness, failing marriage or queerness. It has nothing to say about these topics or the people who struggle with them other than that these things are sad.

There are movies where the screenplay and the acting work in tandem to create something that is better than the sum of its parts. Running on Empty Dreams is not one of those cases. While the dialogue and story is admittedly weak, the acting does absolutely nothing to elevate it. Frankly, the acting in this film is pretty much community theatre level. I almost felt embarrassed for the actors in this movie. I’m sure they are trying their best, but the end result makes them look very bad at their jobs.

Specifically, there’s absolutely no chemistry between Jane and Sydney. When, at the half hour mark, Sydney admits she can’t stop thinking about Jane, I was surprised. Not only have these characters spent limited screen time together but in said screen time, they still seem like strangers to one another. There is no tangible connection between this core romantic couple. They never seem comfortable together. Between the poor writing and bad acting, the relationship between Jane and Sydney is one of the all-around poorest WLW relationships I’ve seen on screen. Even as the film goes on and they do spend a lot of time together and even have intimate scenes, there’s still absolutely nothing to this relationship. It seems inherently false.

There’s also this completely bizarre subplot where a lesbian who’s not so much ex-gay as just not a practicing homosexual keeps harassing Sydney and saying she needs to stop her relationship with Jane and reconnect with God. I’m unclear as to how this character found out about any of this in the first place. She seems to just show up one night having far too much information about what’s going on. This subplot doesn’t go anywhere or add anything. It’s hardly worth remarking upon other than I wanted to note that it’s bad and unnecessary.

I will say, Running on Empty Dreams remained unpredictable as to how it would end. I was unsure if we’d get a happy ending or if Corey would maybe kill Jane or Sydney or if Sydney would die of cancer. Actually, the movie ends with Sydney committing suicide for reasons that are still not fully clear to me. However, much as I enjoy unpredictability, in this case it mostly stemmed from this movie not focusing on any given theme. I don’t think the movie itself knows what it’s going for or what its focus is on a deeper level beyond these characters have hard lives. This is another reason this movie fails to have emotional resonance; none of the sad stuff ties together to create an overarching theme or narrative. It’s just a bunch of disconnected, sad events that happen.

The final issue I want to address is sound. Sound quality varies from scene to scene and shot to shot. In various and constant ways, the sound mixing is poor. Additionally, the music is distracting. The composer of this film was certainly giving 100% and is clearly talented but the music doesn’t add to the film. It’s so prominent and often over-dramatic in a way that distracts from events onscreen instead of adding to it. The score often feels like something you’d find in a high-budget thriller. It’s creepy and intense in scenes where nothing is happening. Overall, the score is too epic and going way too hard for this small-scale, half-assed movie.

Running on Empty Dreams is one of those movies that I do think is really trying. However, no part of it is competent. This is one of the least enjoyable experiences I’ve had watching a WLW film. Not only does Running on Empty Dreams lack any joy (which at least is intentional) but it’s executed so poorly as to be a borderline painful experience to sit through. I do not recommend this movie sincerely, ironically or at all. It is start to finish not enjoyable and not competent. One to be avoided.

Overall rating: 2.1/10

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