You don't need a weatherman to predict the ending of Run & Jump, and yet ...

It's very easy, and probably appropriate, to dismiss the Irish Run & Jump as just another chick flick, but it has a few elements that elevate it, if only just a little, about the level of the genre: Maxine Peake in the lead role brings a lot of liveliness and spirit to what could have been a very drab part of an unhappy Irish housewife; the Irish and English filmmakers are a thousand times better than their American counterparts at capturing the look and feel of a working-class household (whether American directors can't do that, as I think Woody Allen can't, for example, or don't want to do that because people want to see style and glamor, regardless of plot credibility, is another question), and the plot manages to counterbalance a large number of elements without collapsing under its own weight. Plus most Americans, me included, enjoy seeing anything set in the Irish countryside - or really in any foreign country: movies, like fiction, help us see and comprehend the lives of others. That said, the movie is definitely a genre film, as even the barest plot summary will make plain: early 40ish mom contemporary Ireland goes to pick up husband at rehab center; he's been there for several months recovering from severe stroke, and at home is barely verbal, sometimes has outbursts, can relate to animals but not to people not even lovely wife. American research scientist moves into the household to observe daily progress of husband for book he's writing - highly improbable, but OK we accept that - and as the wife is obviously not being satisfied sexually or emotionally she turns toward the dour and serious (played by Will Forte, a master at this kind of role) visiting stranger, with lots of flirtation. Which will lead where? You don't need a weatherman to predict the likely outcome of all of the plotlines of the the move; I won't give any spoilers but will say that, again to its credit, some of the lines are left ever so slightly open at the end - not a Hollywood ending, exactly, but as close as an Irish chick flick is likely ever to get.