Run, the new thriller by Searching team Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, revolves around a cat and mouse game between mom Diane, played by Sarah Paulson, and daughter Chloe, played by Kiera Allen, as the latter tries to unravel the lies she’s been told her entire life.
But all that comes later. Today let’s focus on one of the first scenes, where Paulson’s Diane Sherman gets reintroduced in the present moment of the movie, at a home school support group.
The Humble Tissue
The scene opens on a tissue box, which then gets passed from parent to parent as they share their heartbreaking stories and console each other. They each face terrible circumstances of children with different reasons for requiring home schooling. Of course there would be tears. Through all this we stay tight on the box, going desk to desk.
And then the box reaches Diane as the group also turns their attention to her. Busy with a phone, she has to put it away and engage with the group – only to reject their sympathy. Paulson gets a brief monologue outlining all that she has given up for her daughter and how much she looks forward to both of them entering this next step.
Finally, as she wraps up her speech with how exceptional her daughter is, she takes the box and hands it back to the group. Firmly rejecting their offer of sympathy.
Imbuing Objects with Meaning
The tissue box in this scene becomes representative of the several different ideas. The sympathies of the group, the expectation of victimhood, the stereotypes of motherhood. The camera work just further highlights this by staying tight on the box rather than the people in the meeting. And Diane, by rejecting the box, demonstrates how both she and her daughter also reject each of those ideas, setting up how their characters will operate in the thriller to come.
This little choice helps elevate the scene, giving it both extra style and weight to what it’s doing. So the next time you’re struggling to keep a scene interesting, consider what everyday object in the scene can become imbued with significance and add a little extra seasoning.