The main problem with the film is that inherent to most play adaptations: it's too talky and static, with most of the responsibility for story development left to explanatory dialog.
Comment
11/07/07
The Runner Stumbles (1979)
38
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:8
Fresh:3
Rotten:5
Average Rating:5.4/10
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In this drama based on a real-life story, a priest falls in love with a young nun at his parish. When she is murdered, he becomes the prime suspect. Through flashbacks, the film shows the events... [More]
Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Kathleen Quinlan, Maureen Stapleton, Ray Bolger
Director: Stanley Kramer
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Reviews for The Runner Stumbles
1 - 8 (sorted by date)
Throughout, the film is paced by fine performances, especially Van Dyke as Father Rivard, Quinlan as Sister Rita and Maureen Stapleton as Van Dyke's housekeeper.
11/07/07
Top CriticDeadly earnestness over Van Dyke's tortured celibacy becomes risible long before the Perry Mason conclusion and a final scene of indescribable bathos.
06/24/06
No review available.
09/27/05
No review available.
07/03/05
Mr. Van Dyke's performance, though extremely sympathetic, is hard to assess. He worries and suffers, but the film finds nothing vital in his ordeal.
05/09/05
Top CriticIn its relentlessly old-fashioned way, The Runner Stumbles has a sort of dramatic persistence: It's not great, but it's there.
10/23/04
Top CriticThe Runner Stumbles is an exceptionally fine film about the exigencies of a religious calling and a critique of the legalism within Christianity.
01/27/04
1 - 8 (sorted by date)
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