Film Reviews

The Runway

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Kerry Condon
• Details: Ireland / 101mins (PG).

Based on a true story (kind of), The Runway is a delightful children's adventure comedy-drama with lashings of heart and humour.

It's 1983 and a recession hit Drumasheen, Co. Cork is like a ghost town with locals having little to do but hang about waiting for something to happen. Something does happen in the shape of a crashing plane, piloted by Columbian Ernesto (Bichir, Ché). He's taken in by Paco (Kearns), an honest kid forced to live the latchkey life because his single mother (Condon) works odd hours. Told that his father 'lives in Spain', Paco sees a kinship in Ernesto and pulls the town together to help him get back in the air - by building a runway. However, Ernesto has reasons to vamos other than merely getting home…
Written and directed by Ian Power, The Runway has the spirit of ET pumping through it. If ET was Elliot's surrogate father, an alien being who would do anything to protect him, that's exactly what Ernesto is to Paco. Like Spielberg's modern classic, the relationship is based on fear and wonder at first but as the two get to know each other they learn they have a lot in common - and not just their love for Condon, which adds a little spice to the scenes set at home. They compliment each other perfectly: Paco's pidgin Spanish is just enough to communicate with his ward and we get the impression that Ernesto wouldn't be chatty in his native language anyway. They get by with gestures and a sixth sense for knowing what the other is thinking (although sometimes Paco makes up what he wants Ernesto to say). Watching this relationship develop is charming.
ET isn't the only influence, though, as Power aims to treat Drumasheen as the Coen Brothers treated Fargo; The Runway is filled with oddball characters but the writer-director stops just short of having a sneaky laugh at the people that inhabit the sleepy community. Although Mayor Carmoddy (a delightful Crowley) might be a figure of fun with his small-town attitude, and his double act with local Gardai Pat Laffan (The Snapper's Burgess) throws up a few giggles, his purpose is never for pure comedy. Carmoddy and co. work hard to swing The Runway from comedy to drama when the story needs it.
Ian Power looks like he could be one for the future.

Review by Gavin Burke