Pace Review: Desmond Tan’s Reform Drama Is Well-Meaning But Plays It Too Safe & Serious

Pace (NC16)

Starring Desmond Tan, Zhu Houren, Joel Choo, Elaine Jin, Simonboy, Zaki Hussain

Directed by Jonathan Choo

After three years in a halfway house, Malcolm (Desmond Tan), an ex-drug addict with a yen for running, is released.

Rebuilding his life, he faces adjustment problems. At work as a sullen furniture mover. At home with his unforgiving father, Kong Sai (Zhu Houren), and friendlier stepmom Sally (A Brighter Summer Day’s Elaine Jin).

Out of shape while panting-jogging, Malcolm is overtaken by a cheeky kid, Benson (Albert Tan), who trash-talks him to motivate him. Before long, he joins the schoolboy’s running team training under a welcoming do-gooder coach, Firdaus (content creator Zaki Hussain), with a penchant for sagacious wisdom.

“How do you know where you’re running to if you keep on looking at the ground?” the track guru proffers.

Looks iffy. A 40-year-old hanging out with 14-year-olds. But hey, good thoughts here.

The kids rib Malcolm good-heartedly by calling him “convict”. You wonder if former felons come with a payback breaking point.

Malcolm, facing societal pressure and personal wounds, thinks about trying for a marathon. Which was a big ambition his younger brother, Jing (Joel Choo), a saintly optimistic runner-motivator, had encouraged him to aim for to exorcise his dope demons before the kid bro, well, died.

I can’t recall whether it’s revealed how Jing conked off. Maybe that would kill the forward-moving vibe. “Slow jog, don't walk,” urges coach Firdaus.

Here's the thing. Pace is, as expected, filled with good intentions. Too good and too nice.

It plods on gently, mildly in one direction that’s generally predictable, basically flat — story and running route-wise — and, for a post-criminal subject matter, mostly safe. So safe that despite inserting self-loathing and domestic turmoil, the pic’s just too preachy-peachy coo.

This serious reform drama keeps its distance, no pun intended, from hard relapse. Making it look like a public service vid about staying on the right path given a second chance that’s been stretched into a wholesome feature film.

The druggie-buddies who try to lure glum, unsure Malcolm back to the dark side turn out to be zero-trouble people. They tempt him with a forbidden bong. But when he dithers, nobody’s pushing.

Even influencer and actual ex-addict Simonboy playing Larry, Malcolm’s pal from the bad old days, looks low-key angelic selling waffles in a school canteen.

The perspiration here isn’t from toxic cold turkey. It’s from healthy-burning determination.

Could be because this well-meaning tale is too reverent to its backer, Yellow Ribbon Project, and its noble purpose of re-integrating former offenders. When was the last time we saw Changi Prison inmates cheer on joggers?

And in this positive-minded flick, family certainly matters, for good or bad, both on and offscreen.

Director-writer-lecturer Jonathan Choo, making his big-screen debut, helms both his real-life dad, veteran Zhu, and true younger brother, Joel, right here.

Zhu’s Kong Sai believes his bad son to be beyond redemption, having failed previously to turn clean. He warns stepmom Sally not to trust the intruder moving into their home.

Joel’s good dead son Jing is the absentee ray of sunshine to his older bro’s latent darkness. The guy pops up like a ghost in chirpy running-cam flashbacks looking like they’re made by our can-do marathoner Soh Rui Yong.

“It’s a very lonely journey,” Jing describes the marathon.

In this, Pace nails it when Malcolm has company.

Hats off to main man Tan — he’s a commando officer in NS — for piling on extra pounds to look realistic. But there’s only so much a movie can do about folks pounding the ground repeatedly. See Chow Yun-fat's One More Chance.

So the best bits here are the soulful, not sole-ful, ones.

The amusing, awkward way moody adult Malcolm connects with chummy kid Benson which would otherwise send old Mal back to prison if it went wrong.

And his interactions with his seemingly supportive stepmom in which Tan and Jin raise the standards in this drama.

“Why wasn’t it you who died?” Sally asks the undeserving prodigal son standing in place of the better sibling who’s gone.

If Pace had challenged itself more like this, this pic would’ve been quite a run. (2.5/5 stars) out in cinemas

Photo: Clover Films