Review: Sarah Paulson in Hulu’s "Run"

By Abe Friedtanzer

Is there any project that wouldn’t be able to write in a great part for Sarah Paulson? The Emmy-winning actress is a frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator, most recently working with him in the title role of Netflix’s Ratched, which finds a role almost tailor-made for her as a passionate nurse with subversive aims and a formidable will to achieve them. She was also very memorable as one of the few fictional characters in Mrs. America, a stoic supporter of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly who undergoes a fascinating transformation over the course of the limited series. Now, she’s back on streaming in the Hulu movie Run, a tense thriller not to be confused with HBO’s recent dark comedy effort.

Paulson stars as Diane, a woman who is devastated to learn upon giving birth that her daughter is afflicted with a number of conditions that will make her life very difficult...

Years later, Chloe (Kiera Allen) is a teenager and follows a standard routine each morning that involves exercises, a motorized chair to get down the stairs, and a steady regimen of pills. Diane homeschools Chloe, who almost never leaves the house, and their bond is strong. That all changes when Chloe, eagerly searching for a college acceptance letter in her mother’s grocery bag, finds a prescription in Diane’s name rather than her own, leading her to unravel a web of disturbing lies about just how it is that her mother expresses her love.

 

Paulson possesses the perfect demeanor to portray a character who at first seems remarkably friendly and well-liked, but slowly reveals how that is merely a front for her manipulative behavior. Chloe inherently trusts her mother until she is given a reason not to, and the system they have established gives her just as little power as her body affords her to physically run away once she realizes something is truly wrong. Allen, in her first feature film role, plays marvelously off Paulson, channeling an equally deceptive surface persona to fool Diane into thinking that she doesn’t have a clue about what she’s been doing.

These two actresses make this extended cat-and-mouse game, which comes from Aneesh Chaganty, whose first film was the innovative and well-received Searching, very enticing. Its setup and its trajectory aren’t earth-shattering in their creativity, but smart pacing helps keep the story tight and focused. It’s appropriately unsettling and unnerving, leading up to a surprisingly resounding and clever finish. Expectations should be pretty clear based on its premise, and anyone signing up for that ride shouldn’t be disappointed.

 
Run premieres on Hulu this Friday, November 20th

Comments

[Working stiff]

Are we in Munchausen-by-proxy-land here?