Terri Blackstock’s If I Run Review: Kat Graham & Evan Roderick Leave Us Hooked and Hanging

It’s always bittersweet when Lifetime leaves us on edge!

Thus far, the Faith slate has been interesting. Faith in the Flames was a classic ripped-from-the-headlines tale inspired by the real story of a brave heroine, and Before Your Father Finds Us was an original Lifetime thriller.

Meanwhile, Terri Blackstock’s If I Run is a suspenseful book adaptation (starring none other than The Vampire Diaries talent, Kat Graham) and the first part of a trilogy.

They’ve mixed and matched vibes and feels, with some rooted heavily in faith and others barely scratching the surface. Ideally, it aims to provide a diverse range of content and help us determine what resonates with viewers the most.

Of course, Lifetime adapting books to the screen is nothing new, and goodness knows those have resulted in some of the best and most addictive television series and films over the past couple of decades.

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And what I loved about If I Run is that it had a sprinkling of everything: thrills, suspense, family drama, faith, friendship, crime, and hints of romance, too.

But as someone who absolutely loved Angie Harmon’s Buried in Barstow, only for it to leave us hanging without a sequel in sight, as the minutes wound down, and the core mystery went unresolved, I couldn’t help but grit my teeth.

For the most part, I enjoyed If I Run. Kat Graham is such a charismatic and empathetic lead, and she has such a genuinely warm and inviting presence onscreen.

James Tupper is an icon in his own right and plays a baddie incredibly well.

And Evan Roderick has this affability and easy charm and vulnerability that translates so well onscreen. I’ve enjoyed his ability to connect with the audience since his spectacular performance in Spinning Out.

As a side note, it thrills me beyond measure that he’s stacking up the projects, and amuses me to no end that he happens to star in two different trilogies in two different networks that drop on the same night.

I hope you all check out his performance in Hallmark’s Providence Falls as well!

If I Run boasts a solid cast, led by Graham, and the film takes no shortcuts, hitting the ground running (pun unintended) and thrusting us right into the action, leaving us to keep up from that point forward.

Casey was the perfect blend of strong and vulnerable, which made her a compelling and sympathetic heroine throughout the film. Your heart instantly ached for a woman who still hadn’t worked through the grief and trauma of her father’s death.

And when we find her, she’s facing another trauma that she doesn’t even get a second to properly process as she discovers her best friend Brent’s body and has to go on the run, knowing that the police will suspect she’s behind it.

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The series throws us right into the deep end, which only adds to the intensity, sense of paranoia, and high stakes of this situation. We don’t even get a second to process why she’s on the run before we’re swept up in her journey and just hoping she gets through this unscathed.

There’s a sense of initial clunkiness that falls into place if you go into this understanding that it’s the first part of a trilogy and intends to stick to that formatting in film form.

Casey’s instant connection with the endearing and wonderfully maternal Lucy is the type of thing that signals that something is afoot, and Casey will go on a side quest as it pertains to Lucy. We file away the information about her granddaughter, Leah, and go from there.

The two talking about faith doesn’t feel the most organic in those early scenes, but the discussions about God, faith, hope, and belief eventually start feeling more natural as the film progresses.

And Casey will have a lot on her plate in addition to figuring out what happened to her father and Brent. In that way, it reminds me a bit of Reacher — she didn’t intend to find trouble, but she wanted to rectify it.

I loved that throughout the film, more information flows in about Casey, shaping our heroine through the eyes of those she has touched and impacted.

Her social work has touched the lives of many, and I was particularly moved by the connection she had with the former inmate whom she helped — and how he was able to pay it forward, applying the gentleness and compassion she extended to him to Dylan later.

I also loved what he had to say about how society generally treats — or in this case fears– veterans and criminals alike. It speaks to a general lack of empathy that permeates through society.

Sadly, much of the love people have for veterans and honoring them feels performative when we see in reality how society too often allows veterans to fall through the cracks the moment they actually return, a bit battered and broken, and trying to acclimate to life again.

It’s this Catch Me If You Can hook and the slow realization that Casey could genuinely be a bright light for Dylan that roots their connection in the film despite the little time they spend together face-to-face.

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I loved the tease of romance, but as something deeper for both of them, if only they could get through all of this — and it’s that tease of something particularly intriguing and a testament to the right balance the film manages to strike.

Casey was this beautiful, bright, brilliant woman who knew her father’s death wasn’t as it seemed. She found his body, and they claimed he committed suicide, but the flashbacks revealed how he had signs of a struggle.

The scratch marks on his arms would imply that he was fighting off someone who was trying to kill him, not that he took his own life with his daughters not that far away.

Brent was such a genuinely good friend for wanting to look into that for her, and heartbreakingly, it led to his death. It’s a common trope for journalists in thrillers.

But from the moment we learned he was a cop, it was rather apparent what had transpired and that her father fell on the wrong side of his comrades and paid the ultimate price for it.

The film weaves this in well, as seen from Dylan’s point of view, where he’s pursuing a job in law enforcement at the same station.

Sadly, his PTSD is presumably what keeps him from landing a spot, but then it doesn’t seem to matter when Keegan takes interest in him and basically gives the guy a badge like it’s a piece of candy and sends him on his merry way hunting down a fugitive.

Does it require a level of suspension of belief that knows no bounds? Absolutely.

But I’m willing to ignore all of that ridiculousness for the nature of the ride. Plus, despite how absurd it is that Dylan waltzes into a position as an investigator, especially in looking into the death of his old best friend, it gives us the best of Dylan as a character.

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He’s every bit as compelling to watch as Casey. And he follows the evidence, not what Keegan and a cartoonishly mean and villainous Rollins feed him.

Dylan seems to recognize that things aren’t right, as evidenced by their repeated attempts to redirect him and Keegan’s blatant attempt to lure him into their corrupt brotherhood (while Rollins is either jealous or wise enough to realize Dylan isn’t a good fit).

He’s not inclined to pin everything on Casey, which makes him a strong ally for her as the film unfolds.

And now, he’s deep in the throes of working with the enemy, as the police are determined to take out everyone connected to the investigation into their fallen brother’s death.

The bodies piled up, Brent, the woman who worked in evidence, and if they have their way, Casey will join them — Dylan, too.

We know who the players are, the people responsible for Cox’s death, and who is behind Brent’s death and framing Casey as well.

It seems foolproof, and they should have at least enough evidence to raise some concerns with the FBI. However, it isn’t enough, and we’re to ride this over-arching plot out for another two films (assuming Lifetime greenlights and actually following through with them).

In the meantime, Casey solves a Missing Persons Case in the process.

The ongoing theme of the film seemed to be that of “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” That nefarious businessman, who was the crown prince of Atlanta, was able to get away with kidnapping and holding Leah hostage and impregnating her, too.

It was sick, and his power and influence kept that girl in chains longer than she ever should’ve been in the first place. Goodness knows she’d still be there or dead if Casey hadn’t gotten involved.

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His wife seemed reluctant to take action until he implied he would repeat the process, despite Casey having put them on everyone’s radar. I’m just glad Casey was able to help her newfound friend and angel Lucy reunite with her granddaughter.

But the cliffhanger is still a bummer. I’m wary of whether or not they’ll follow through this time. I hope so.

Over to you, Lifetime Fanatics. Did the cliffhanger annoy you?

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