RUNNER RUNNER: IMDB Synopsis
When a poor college student who cracks an online poker game goes bust, he arranges a face-to-face with the man he thinks cheated him, a sly offshore entrepreneur.
A former venture capitalist, Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake), attempts to help pay his tuition at Princeton by gambling his savings at a online poker site. When he loses it all, he determines he was the victim of a scam and travels to Costa Rica to confront the owner, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), with his evidence in the hope of getting his money back. As a result of his boldness and insights, Block offers him a job and the chance to make a fortune. Furst accepts and gradually finds himself seduced by the extravagant lifestyle but before long finds there is a darker side to the business and life in Costa Rica.
Runner Runner is one of those overly stylized and predictable thrillers. It is your typical tale of a young, eager and naive-type who is seduced by someone in a position of power with promises of wealth and women. As Furst has to get his hands dirty to achieve all that is promised, he starts to realize the price is too high. The film opens with a slick montage, catching us all up on the perils of online gambling and its pervasiveness into the youth of today. It is a valid subject matter to tackle, online gambling is a very real and dangerous threat, yet the movie doesn’t really delve into the gritty dark side too much, a setting of Costa Rica imbues the film with a very slick and removed feel. It all unfolds in a rather clumsy way, the writers never stepping beyond the bland, using terrible voiceovers to inform the audience, and the film is peppered with far too many ‘poker as a life lesson’ analogy quips for my liking.
Runner Runner actually pulled together a pretty decent cast, one which I had hoped would raise the quality of the film and in some cases that holds true. The lead is the one and only Mr. Timberlake, who has shown himself to be somewhat capable in front of the camera (Black Snake Moan, In Time, The Social Network) and certainly lacks no charisma. Here he turns in a somewhat stilted, smug performance and is not helped by the aforementioned ‘grating’ voiceovers. However to make up for this we do have Ben Affleck (Argo, The Town) channeling a diet-coke version of a Bond villain — hell, he even has his own crocodile farm! He has a nice introductory monologue comparing his isolation in Costa Rica to that of Napoleon on Elba. His persona goes from the menacing to the suave and is clearly cutting loose and enjoying himself. The Bond comparisons do not end there as the film also features former Bond girl Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans) as Block’s assistant and love interest for Furst. I found her British accent to be somewhat distracting amongst the slick and South American vibe of the film to be honest, but she certainly exuded a smoldering presence. There is not much chemistry amongst the cast, largely due to poor writing, but a case could be made to see this film on the basis of seeing Affleck barraging his way through it.
“I don’t understand why they even made that film”, uttered my friend after this screening of the new Justin Timberlake showcase. She kind of has a point. Runner Runner is not a bad film, and is solidly put together, but it utterly fails to give us anything new or special. So what is the point? If you’re looking for a film to see this week, go see Gravity. Already seen Gravity? Go see it again. I guarantee it’ll be a far more worthwhile use of your time and money. You can catch Runner Runner on cable in a few years.
*I tried to come up with some witty poker puns during this review but to be honest I didn’t want to spend more time on this that the writers did on the actual film.