The Runner

Given that cinema itself is a game of chance, it's a natural that movies should be obsessed with gamblers. Taking it to a Kafka-esque level and losing on the final draw is Ron Moler's The Runner.

Edward (Ron Eldard) has lost it all in Vegas, so his Uncle Rocco (Joe Mantegna, bringing the sad savvy of his role in House of Games) stakes him to a job as a runner placing bets for the legendary illegal bookmaker Deepthroat (John Goodman having fun being weird and malevolent). His new boss is strict -- people have been chewed to death by attack dogs or poisoned with black-widow venom for minor infractions; and when Edward taps Deepthroat for $10,000 to buy an engagement ring for his waitress girlfriend Karina (Courteney Cox), his chances of surviving look grim. But as "477" (Bokeem Woodbine), one of Edward's co-workers, points out, "the one thing Deepthroat enjoys more than betting on strangers is betting on people he knows." Edward's plight becomes a kind of demonic, existential trial that, orchestrated by his omniscient boss, plunges him into the nadir of his addiction (some scenes would be reminiscent of Robert Altman's great California Split if Eldard were a better actor); and the wagers rise to include his first-born son, with a final showdown involving, of all things, a lawn sprinkler. Compelling as long as the stakes are kept reasonable, The Runner unfortunately doesn't know when to quit. Screens at the Copley Place Thursday, September 16 at 7 and 9:15 p.m. and Friday, September 17 at 12:15, 2:30, and 4:45 p.m. Director Ron Moler will be present at tonight's 7 p.m. showing.

-- Peter Keough

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Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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