by Erik Sean McGiven on Oct 24, 2008

"The Run" is a riveting entry from Australian-born producer/director/writer Tania Meneguzzi.  The film stars Alexandra Weaver ("Angel Wing") and David House ("How to Disappear Completely") as a struggling young couple seeking excitement, bargains, and easy cash. The film begins with a flash-forward of them going through customs as they attempt to remain calm and inconspicuous.  The scene sets up the whole premise that greed can suffocate dreams and that the consequences can be far worse than one could have ever imagined.

They are a happy pair, in love and with hopes for a better life.  Amanda is a promising singer and Rowly works at a bar where he pockets receipts for customer drinks.  This is an edgy couple with a propensity for dark-side misdeeds.  They document their life with bulletin board photos of their escapades as if it were the barometer of their success.  And when their close friends Greg and Samantha, played by Guy Edwards and Kimberly Jaraj, tell them about a drug smuggling operation in which they could make some quick cash they jump at the opportunity.  

The couple travels to Costa Rica and meets up with drug dealer Akra and his partner Lil portrayed by Trey Farley ("Bend It Like Beckham") and Marta Barrio.  Given an attaché case filled with small capsules of cocaine and instructions the young couple takes to the task of swallowing them and heading back to England.  The trip does not go without problems, but they are mostly of a gastronomical nature.  At the airport custom officials add to the tension as they survey arrivals and pull aside likely suspects for questioning.  Most unsettling is the intuitive custom inspector played by Philip Delancy as he knows the tricks of the trade and how drug mules operate.  He knows it's a numbers game and when the profile fits, he investigates.  And the crux of the story is not whether Amanda and Rowly will be caught but when. 

Auteur Tania Meneguzzi hits all the right buttons in this film setting up what might have been against the tragic descent into oblivion.  The addiction in this story is a combination of greed, thrills, and drugs.  Together they make for a compelling mix that pulls you into this story then accelerates to its surprise ending.    The two leads are a brilliant bit of casting as they play the double-edged sword balancing hopeful dreams against their addictive desire for money.  The structure to the story is inventive and the way events, especially of the trafficking, are compressed with varying perspectives.  The film is a little slow in getting into its true mission, that of being drug mules, but maybe the good qualities of these characters needs to be firmly established before they can fall from grace.  We care about these two characters and that's what makes the story so intriguing and entertaining.

The production values are first rate, especially the airport scenes with custom officials.  Editing, sound, and photography are professionally done and bring the story to the screen with considerable integrity.  The drug trafficking scenes have a gut wrenching tension filled with what ifs, just abouts, and oh no's.  Tan Tucag's music ups the ante involving us even more in the dilemma of these two characters.  And while their crimes are of a despicable nature, we care enough to wish that somehow they would find another way out of this mess.  "The Run" is fascinating trip into world of drug smuggling, its addictive aspects as well as its tragic repercussions.  

CREDITS: Stars Alexandra Weaver, David House, Neil Newbon, Trey Farley, Philip Delancey, Kimberly Jaraj, and Marta Barrio. Writer/Director/Producer, Tainia Meneguzzi; Neil Stapley, Richard Barlow, Annie Ben, Executive/Co-Producers; Steven Priovolos, Director of Photography; Melanie Leblond, Editor; Laura Lopez, Production Designer; Paul Sheeky, Sound; Tan Tuncag, Music.  Produced by ZZ Productions Ltd., London.  Running Time is 86 Minutes.