P

lenty has been said about Nicolas Cage'€™s descent from Oscar-winning talent to a wacky internet-meme.

Though a few other actors have suffered the same fate (see Halle Berry), Cage'€™s plummet keeps us engrossed primarily because of the sheer number of movies '€” terrible movies '€” he keeps starring in.

Though it might be scheduling happenstance, this month alone sees the simultaneous release of two Cage films in Indonesian cinemas '€” the frighteningly drowsy horror Pay the Ghost and The Runner.

The Runner isn'€™t horrible per-se. It has some fine acting by Peter Fonda, a premise involving timely political intrigue and a dramatic eagerness to let its actors shine in a subtle yet disquieting manner.

But the film'€™s dour visuals, while setting a pensive mood, are squandered by the script'€™s lackluster qualities.

For its entire 90-minutes, The Runner delivers one clichéd turn after another, with exposition-heavy lines and a presentation that never trusts the audience'€™s intellect. The film desperately wants to be weighty but it considers its audience too dumb for it, and as a result, hammers down the same point over and over again.

The introduction scene, for example, has Cage'€™s Louisiana congressman character, Colin Price, literally prepping up for a run, a habit that has no bearing on the story'€™s structure other than working as a pointless pun.

Directed and written by producer Austin Stark in his directorial-debut, The Runner aims to be a story of idealistic redemption.

Price'€™s moment comes after a particularly impassioned speech condemning the economic impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Seizing the moment, Price'€™s right-hand Frank (Wendell Pierce) gets Price to run for senate.

Positioning himself as a politician who actually cares about regular people, Price advertizes himself as one who cares little about the power and wealth that a senatorial seat could bring him.

He brushes off an oil lobbyist with money to burn and is seemingly sure that his idealism will be enough to get him the seat.

Alas, Price has a weakness for women. When elevator camera footage of an affair with the wife of a fisherman becomes public consumption, things take a turn for the worse.

His ambitious wife, attorney Deborah (Connie Nielsen), and Frank immediately go into spin-doctor mode.

Along for the ride is an attractive consultant (Sarah Paulson), who is as idealistic as Price. Peter Fonda plays Price'€™s old-school politico dad, with a strong air of cynicism about him that goes beyond the reach of the film.

In fact, all the actors are better than the film. Though far from earth-shattering, Nielsen pulls off some gravitas as the perpetually-driven, power-hungry Deborah.

Though saddled down by the tropes of the idealistic-single-mother who looks up to Price a little too much, Paulson manages to squeeze out an air of realism to her surroundings.

That the film suddenly goes into middling middle-age romance territory in the middle makes it easier to appreciate these things.

Which takes us back to Cage, an actor once considered too good for movies like this.

But standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow actors, it becomes clear that Cage'€™s commitment to deepening his characters has wavered. It isn'€™t that Price is particularly bad, but he'€™s just there, saying nothing in particular about politics, ambition, familial dysfunction or much of anything.

Cage'€™s shrug-like acting fits Stark'€™s non-ability to trust his audience with anything resembling a curveball. The Runner isn'€™t boring, it just doesn'€™t care.