Run & Jump
Director: Steph Green
Starring: Maxine Peake, Edward MacLiam, Will Forte
★★★★ (out of five)
WHILE Downhill reflects upon the perturbing but entirely common experience of male menopause, Steph Green’s Run and Jump looks at middle-age from a distinctly uncommon perspective.
The excellent Maxine Peake plays Vanetia, a vivacious wife and mother who finds her handsome and skillful husband Conor (the superb Edward MacLiam) impaired by stroke at the relatively young age of 38. The delicately timed story follows Conor’s rehabilitation into home life, a process that runs neither straightforward nor smooth.
Among several complications is the arrival of Ted (the subtle Will Forte), a good-looking American cognitive scientist who’s studying Conor’s recovery.
As her husband’s mental and social incapacities become more obvious, often to her sharp embarrassment, the increasingly desperate Vanetia leans toward Ted for support and understanding. This inevitably leads to sexual tension, deeply testing Vanetia’s sense of love and loyalty.
A critical and popular favourite for last year’s festival schedules, Run and Jump is a superior comedy-drama offering insightful observations on family life and domesticity, though it does so from a skewed angle.
Run and Jump is released in Britain on May 23
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