Brandon Oelofse | Weglopers (Runaways) / 2023

forgiving endlessly

by Douglas Messerli

 

Joseph Kearney and Brandon Oelofse (screenplay), Brandon Oelofse (director) Weglopers (Runaways) / 2023

 

Dutch director Brandon Oelofse’s Runaways is about three men, all of whom are addicted to rather unfulfilling relationships. At the center of three is Frank (Thomas Puvill), an attractive and seductive gay man who, seemingly in a permanent relationship with Daan (Olcher Molendik). Yet Frank has a severe problem; he can’t resist having outside sex, and evidently has a long history of relationships outside of his and Daan’s.

     Most recently, Frank, having met Robert at his local gym, has been having sex with him at regular intervals. Robert knows that Frank has a great deal of difficulty with emotional expression, but Robert is also needy, apparently never able to have a close relationship, even as a child, and which he has long been seeking. Although he knows about Frank’s boyfriend, he continues to imagine the possibility of replacing him, of possibly bonding with Frank through sex so that his friend might wish to runaway with him instead of remaining in what appears to be a safe but unfulfilling relationship with Daan.

    Although Oelofse spends most of the film in representing the quite explicit sex scenes with Robert and Frank—indicating by doing so that they are apparently sexually perfect for one another—the real crisis is when Daan returns home early to find the two in bed together.

      Unlike the numerous gay melodramas by young filmmakers, Daan does not scream and shout, threaten to leave, or even express a great deal of anger. Daan clearly knows of his lover’s long history of sexual trysts that last over a period of time before Frank ends them. And it Daan’s his passivity, not his clear frustration, that seems to truly indicate the problem. It’s clear that Daan is tired of coming home to find that his bed smells of another man’s cologne, or that, as in this case, Robert has actually stolen a small earring (a cross similar to the one worn by the singer George Michael) from under his pillow. But his lack of reaction, his ability to keep it under control is what makes it safe for Frank to remain in the relationship. Where else might Frank find someone who might permit him his sexual addiction and still find him there to support him when he needs him and again feels alone?

       This particular day also happens to have been Robert’s birthday, and he has abandoned an evening with friends to spend with Frank, hoping that he might finally be lucky enough to convince him to break free and join in a relationship truly built around sexual contact. But Frank is right; he isn’t his type, he would never, like Daan, be able to handle the dishonesty, the many nights alone, the full recognition that no one person can ever fulfill Frank because he has never fully been able to love anyone quite enough, to emotionally open up himself to another human being.

      Almost as a token, Frank awards Robert Daan’s ridiculous earring, telling him it looks sexy on him, despite the fact that Robert has openly wondered why anyone would wear such a symbol that has been behind so many centuries of gay oppression.. The consolation prize of the earring is what finally breaks the spell, Robert realizing as he leaves the house without a lover that their “pretend” relationship is over. He tosses the earring in one of Amsterdam’s numerous water channels and bicycles off to find whatever the future might bring.

      But that too might be seen as merely running away from situation, just as Daan weekly turns the other cheek, so to speak. “Am I enough,” Daan asks Frank, “Can you be happy with just me? Frank mumbles the perfect non-answer: “You are perfect for me.” But it clear that Daan is perfect only because he continues to accept the fact that his lover cannot share a deep love, no one person will ever be enough for Frank.

 

Los Angeles, September 16, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).