A One Mann’s Movies review of “Run Rabbit Run” (2023).
Sarah Snook is a wonderful actress, and she seems to have burst out of the “Succession” gate running. This Australian film, “Run Rabbit Run”, is the second of my movie reviews in succession (no pun intended!) that has featured her. This time she’s in a starring role.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Sarah (Sarah Snook) is a recently divorced fertility doctor with a recently deceased father and her mother Joan (Greta Scacchi) in a care home due to dementia. Her life is chaotic enough, but then her daughter Mia (Lily LaTorre) starts acting strangely, wearing a rabbit mask and demanding to be addressed by another name.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: TV-MA. (From the BBFC web site: “Language, threat”.)
Talent:
Starring: Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre, Greta Scacchi, Damon Herriman, Georgina Naidu.
Directed by: Daina Reid.
Written by: Hannah Kent.
Twitter Handle: #RunRabbitRun.
Sarah Snook in the lead role of Sarah with Lily LaTorre delivering a standout performance as young Mia. (Source: Netflix).
“Run Rabbit Run” Review:
Positives:
- Sarah Snook is a teriffic actress: the queen of the disparaging sideways glance, which she got to use to perfection in the brilliant “Succession” which I’ve just finished watching. Here she gets to go through a range of dramatic situations to test her range, from annoyance to confusion to utter terror. She does a great job.
- Also exceptional as the little girl, Mia, is young Lily LaTorre in her feature debut. It’s a great performance and one that in 15 years we might look back on with an “it started there” comment! Good luck to her.
- Some of the scenes build suspense really well: one in a garage, with the door periodically banging shut in the wind, is well done.
Negatives:
- I’m afraid I didn’t emotionally get into this one very much. The story unfolds at a very leisurely pace and after it was unwrapped I could immediately guess where it was going to do (and it went there). There are a few jump scares, but overall this is a psychological horror/mystery/thriller and for that it really needed to be faster paced and more mysterious.
- The director Daina (not a typo!) Reid has chosen to separate scenes with long fades to black. They are almost like separate little vignettes. In addition, the next scene doesn’t seem to always address all of what’s happened in the last scene. The result is that the whole film felt to me rather jerky and disjointed.
Summary Thoughts on “Run Rabbit Run”
It’s not a terrible film by any means. But it didn’t really grab me either. It’s not one that I will remember well in a few months time: my bellweather for a good film. What is good to see is the acting range of Sarah Snook in a different sort of movie. But she needs a better film than this to really breakout into the movie world.
[fblike]
Trailer for “Run Rabbit Run”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFPovTGI8hA . (There are a few spoilers in here, if you want to watch the movie’s story unfold organically).
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