‘Wonder Woman’ Star’s Action Dud Cements Her Losing Streak

Amazon MGM Studios Courtesy of Wonder Woman 1984, Death on the Nile, and Disney’s live-action Snow White— as well as her disastrously received “Imagine” pandemic video —Gal Gadot has been the subject of meme-fueled mockery for years.

With The Runner , however, it’s not so much the actress’ performance that deserves derision but, rather, the film’s atrocious direction.

Shot and edited in the most gratingly frantic manner imaginable, Kevin Macdonald’s race-against-time streaming thriller (September 2, Prime Video) is a non-stop assault on the senses that fails to generate the anxious momentum it craves.

Flashy, insistent, and altogether pretentious, it’s a fine example of migraine cinema.

In London, Maia Marten (Gadot) gets her son Noah (Rory Wilmot) ready for school, telling him to keep an eye on his insulin levels as he plays beside a Noah’s Ark toy set.

Whether this is because he’s named after, or just feels a kinship with, the biblical figure is unclear, but Maia’s athletic shirt, leggings, and Nike sneakers plainly indicate that she’s the film’s title character.

After dropping off Noah, she gets a call from Ted McBain (Alfred Enoch), a colleague whom she’s breaking up with (because he isn’t interested in having kids) and who tells her about a change in plans for a witness pick-up, indicating that she’s a lawyer.

Then, she heads off for a jog.

Mark Gibson’s script dispenses details as its protagonist picks up the pace through a sprawling park.

Digital phone noise (calls, podcast broadcasts, news reports, music) is omnipresent in The Runner , suggesting a world beholden to its devices, and Maia soon becomes urgently tethered to her own when she’s contacted by a mysterious man ( Homeland and Billions star Damian Lewis) who explains that he’s kidnapped Noah and that she must follow his rules for the kid to live.

Those guidelines are relatively simple: don’t talk to anyone; do as he says; and don’t bore him.

To guarantee that she complies, he’s put Noah in a hyper-glycemic coma, and she has one hour to fulfill his mission if she wants to reach the boy in time to give him the life-saving medicine she possesses.

This is a dastardly plot straight out of any number of ticking-clock genre affairs (think Speed and Die Hard with a Vengeance ), and The Runner establishes it swiftly.

Unfortunately, its affectations immediately thwart any chance of immersing the viewer in Maia’s plight.