Director: Brad Furman.
Starring: Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton, Anthony Mackie, Ben Schwartz.
Running Time: 91 minutes.
Certificate: 15
Synopsis: Thinking he’s been conned in an online poker game gone bad, a college student heads to Costa Rica to come face-to-face with the man he believes responsible and encounters more than he bargained for.
College student Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) is in a dilemma; he can’t pay his bills and his introducing of other students to online betting is rubbing the college Dean up the wrong way. The former Wall Street wise guy has no choice but to gamble his savings in an online poker game to try and win enough money for his tuition. He’s studying a masters in finance so obviously when he loses his savings he knows something’s amiss and decides to fly to Costa Rica and challenge the man behind the con. Right there, that’s where the audience should be questioning the plot of this movie because it really doesn’t get any better. Of course your first thought on losing in an online gambling game would be to fly off to a country where, as his roommate sensibly tries to point out, he neither knows the language or the customs. Putting sanity aside for the sake of the movie, let’s accept the bizarre plot up front.
Richie manages to sneak his way into con man Ivan Block’s (Ben Affleck) inner circle to confront him over the cheating. Ivan doesn’t so much offer his apologies as offer Richie a job; a job where he can make more money than he’s ever known in his life. Not one to turn down something seemingly too good to be true, Richie starts working as Ivan’s right hand man. For a former Wall Street financier and current financial masters student he’s not very bright, happy to accept Ivan’s tagline, ‘the house always wins’ without questioning exactly how the house is doing so.
It’s to Timberlake’s credit that he manages to make Furst anything other than a point of ridicule and probably the strongest asset the movie has to offer. Affleck is solid but unaffecting as Block, and whether he gets his just desserts or skips off into the sunset is not really of consequence by the end of the movie. Gemma Arterton is cast as Affleck’s sultry sidekick who also falls for Timberlake’s charm but the actress doesn’t seem to quite fit the character and the lack of chemistry between both pairings is a jarring point of the film.
For a movie about making millions of dollars you could be forgiven for expecting flashy cars, disgustingly wealthy parties, clothes and shopping to entertain and compensate for other failings. However, even these elements are not entirely successful and what’s left is a bland and unfulfilling tale of the danger of online gambling with the lack of character development leaving the audience utterly indifferent to who comes out on top. Lacking tension, intensity and drama, RUNNER RUNNER won’t be leaving audiences breathless.
RUNNER RUNNER is released in UK cinemas on Friday 27th September.
