Run

A former boyracer, who married his first love and took a job in one of the fish factories, now has a 17 year-old-son of his own following in his footsteps and can no longer ignore the fact he’s going nowhere. Unable to be physically or emotionally present with his family, he takes his son’s car out for one final joy ride and risks losing the love that surrounds him

This is quite an interesting observational piece that goes some way to illustrating the lack of opportunities and activities in small, one-industry, towns. This film is based around Fraserburgh - a town of 13,000-odd folk in the north of Scotland that is home to a fishing fleet but very little else. Mark Stanley is "Finnie" a Fraserburgh lifer who works in a fish processing factory. His son does too, at least until the start of this 24 hour dip into their family lives. His wife works in a hairdressers and they have another younger schoolboy child. Late at night, after a fairly "lively" attempt at a family dinner, "Finnie" borrows his son's car and goes for a bit of a joyride - picking up his son's pregnant ex-girlfriend en route and they race a few local youths then the breakers on the sea wall... anything for an adrenalin rush, it would seem. Unfortunately, we only really get a superficial look at the characters; the frustrations and mundanity of their existence is writ large, but therein lies the film's problem - it is a bit like watching goldfish in a dirty bowl; we see but cannot empathise or really engage. There is lots of pent up anger amongst the family; but also some affection - which neither "Finnie" nor his son "Kid" (Anders Hayward) have a clue how to demonstrate. It is worth watching, but is remarkably unfulfilling and empty.