On any day of the week, you can catch me with my thumb out, ready to hitch a ride with a road thriller. Films that take the concept of the unstoppable killer and put them behind the wheel of seven-thousand pounds of screeching steel. On that, director Joey Palmroos’ sophomore feature, Delivery Run, keeps in line with expectations. But there’s one issue with this snow-swept drive into murder and mayhem that keeps it stuck in the snow. It’s as dull as a treadless tire.
Palmroos and co-writer Anders Holmes’ script drops audiences off in the town of Nisswa, Minnesota. There, we meet Lee (Alexander Arnold), a down-on-his-luck delivery driver for RabbitEats. He dreams of purchasing a food truck and starting his own business. But gambling has put him in debt with the ruthless Rebecca (Nadine Higgin). Accompanied by his goldfish, Reggie, Lee has 24 hours to earn the money to pay off Rebecca with enough left over to buy that truck. When he encounters a vicious snowplow driver on the road, Lee finds himself on a path straight into the arms of a murderer.
Palmroos and Holmes write their thriller as if following a basic “Save the Cat” outline. Only in this case, it’s save the fish. I have nothing against a contrived scenario that sees Lee plop Reggie in a bag of water to take with him after his fishbowl is smashed. But the forced effort to give Lee a companion on this journey results in the sort of conversation you might expect between man and goldfish. One that’s empty, un-insightful, and goes nowhere. Fine for one scene, maybe. Not multiple. The character’s belief that the world is out to get him and Arnold’s whiny portrayal don’t do much in the way of developing sympathy for his situation, either.
Along with a protagonist who can’t quite find his footing, Palmroos’ film struggles to balance its Duel-meets-Fargo tone. Limited by either budget, ability to execute, or both, many of Delivery Run’s thrills land with a whimper. Scenes play fast, not furious, often ending before establishing a proper amount of tension. Multiple encounters between Lee and Mr. Plow play more like minor bouts of road rage than a threat on Lee’s life. Not even the isolation of the snowy mountain roads makes its presence felt. Lee always seems to be five minutes from a gas station, bar, you name it. Time and again, the script veers off into sub-plots that disrupt what little unease has been built.
A lack of true terror might be passable if Delivery Run’s humor picked up the slack. Unfortunately, it’s trunk is just as devoid of laughs. Palmroos instills an almost Coen brothers’ style of comedy that, on its surface, should work. Quirky small-town characters. A killer that grumbles like a bear every time he appears on screen. All of it accompanied by composer Tuomas Kantelinen’s corny though appropriate score. Yet, just like the “thrills”, Delivery Run underwhelms here, as well. The film fails to commit to one or the other, going cold in the process. I’d say the script is a bumpy road full of potholes, but it’s more of a flat, uneventful route without much to see along the way.
And that’s what keeps Delivery Run trapped in a snowbank and unable to pull itself out. It isn’t interested in complex problems. Instead, it settles for the easy fix. For example, the script makes clear that Lee has a gambling addiction that got him into this mess. Yet that issue avoids confrontation. I’d even go so far as to say that the character sees about as much growth as a pebble on the street. It’s as if Palmroos and Holmes are constantly looking for shortcuts in a snowstorm and abandoning destinations along the way. Because of that, I doubt you’ll be surprised by much of anything that occurs in Delivery Run. Mile by mile, it takes the basic, pre-determined and, I regret to say it, boring path.
Outside of the intimidating snowplow, Delivery Run doesn’t manage to set itself apart from your average, run of the mill road thriller. Too often, it seems more interested in hitting required beats than caring exactly how to get there. I wish I could say this has the originality of other post-Duel films such as Joy Ride, but Palmroos’ latest is nothing more than a wintery take on Spielberg’s cult classic running on fumes. Like the goldfish memory of Reggie, you’ll likely forget Delivery Run five minutes after you see it.
Delivery Run is out now on VOD from Saban Films.
Summary
With shades of ‘Duel’ meets ‘Fargo’, ‘Delivery Run’ struggles to establish the thrills and laughs of its inspirations, ultimately getting stuck in a snowbank it can’t get out of.
Categorized: News Reviews
