Death can be a funny thing.
Written and directed by Daniel Andre, Running on Empty tells the story of Mortimer (Keir Gilchrist), a bland California man who seems to be starting his life with the love of his life. But all that changes when he discovers his LDC, a ‘scientific’ process that determines how many days one has left to live. Discovering that he has less than a year to go, he quickly finds himself abandoned by his fiancé and looking for answers. Determined to make the most of every day, Mortimer enrols in a dating service that matches people by their death date and he tries to find out what makes life worth living, even though he doesn’t have much time left.
As his first feature, Andre tries to find the funny in the end of life. There’s a quirky awkwardness to the film that makes it endearing, even as it navigates difficult topics. After all, for most people, thinking about their impending doom isn’t exactly a realm worth mining for laughs. But Andre still manages to find the humour without losing the film’s empathy.
Much of this film’s effectiveness stems from Gilchrist’s performance as the dry-witted and darkly comic Mortimer. As the man whose clock is ticking most loudly, Mortimer is a man with ‘nothing to lose’ but neither does he really have anything to leave behind. Gilchrist plays his character flatly, holding the burden of his pending doom upon his shoulders. Even so, he also provides a genuine spirit that keeps him from becoming entirely morose. As the film progresses, his understandable sadness contains a growing spark that makes him endearing.
In this way, Empty feels entirely sincere. After all, death is something that affects everyone so the film wants to have open and honest conversations about it along the way. For some of these characters, ‘death is just a part of life’. For others, it’s an opportunity to become unhinged. Everyone seems to hold onto the realities of their LDC in different ways, some more healthy than others.
All that these characters understand is that the ticking clock means that minutes have value that’s greater than the amount on their LDC. But, at its core, this isn’t a film about looking to the end. Instead, Running on Empty is about living life to the fullest.
And, in Empty, everyone seems to have a different idea of what that means.
But Mortimer isn’t only looking for the next big thrill. He knows that his days are (literally) numbered and he wants them to count for something. To Mortimer, the most important thing life isn’t collecting his paycheque or looking for sex. He believes that what matters most is what stems out of genuine connection with another person. Mortimer wants to experience life within the world that he’s about to leave and he knows it stems from relationships.
It’s this depth of the soul that gives Running on Empty its fuel.
Again, it’s worth noting that this is the sort of film that may not be for everyone. After all, it is a darkly comic piece that feels more introspective in its humour than it does inane. But there’s such a charm to this simple tale that, for those willing to lean into its awkward edge, there’s a life to be found within it.
Running on Empty is available in theatres on Friday, August 9th, 2024.
