Woman on the Run (2017)

Last Saturday night. My ankle was killing me so I sat on the sofa and iced it. I was too tired to read (my brain needed a break from all that fashion talk in American Psycho anyway) so I turned the TV on and Woman on the Run was about to start. And I watched it because it made more sense than zapping to infinity and beyond.

The film follows Nomi Gardner (Sarah Butler), a successful novelist who's been living the life of a hermit while writing her latest book, her only contacts being her husband Mark (Jim Thorburn), her children (Bailey Skodje and Nevaeh Grace Olsen), her children's nanny Greta (Lindsay Maxwell) and her mentor Teddy (Jerry Wasserman).  Her life as a recluse allows Greta to steal her identity and Nomi is forced to go to extreme lengths to get her children back as she is not able to prove her identity. 

Though it kinda looked like a Liam Neeson movie I saw years ago (I don't remember the title but it also had Diane Krüger), the premise was interesting. Unfortunately, its execution left a lot to be desired. 

The plot doesn't make the least bit of sense --if something like this was to happen in real life, I'm pretty sure they would allow a DNA test, or at least have the kids vouch for her or whatever--, it has more holes than Swiss cheese and, while it has a few twists, it's very predictable as you can easily see them coming if you pay attention to the movie. Even if you don't pay a lot of attention, like me, you'll see those twists coming. 

The characters are do thin and under-developed that I don't feel like wasting my time writing about them. Sarah Butler, on the other hand, deserves a mention for giving a decent performance as the lead, which was a very hard job with such a poor script. The rest of the cast is just like the rest of the film, poor to say the least.

Johnson Production Group, Lifetime Television

However, it's with the action sequences that Woman on the Run reaches its peak. The peak of awfulness, of course. Those scenes are truly horrendous as you can easily tell they are not real. Just think low-budget but probably worse. I've seen very low-budget indies with more realistic action sequences than this film's.