Running on Empty

...River Phoenix, not yet 19 himself, enhances his reputation as the very best of a young bunch with an attractive, sensitive performance that earned him an Oscar nomination.

The film is a painful, enormously moving drama in which a choice must be made between sticking together or breaking up and maybe fulfilling a long-delayed potential.

Lumet develops his story at a leisurely but effective pace, allowing the dynamics of a family in transition (...) to give the film its tension.