London is a great city for getting around, when everything is running smoothly, but it isn’t that often with transport - above and below ground - regularly snarling to a halt.

It’s still very walkable though, especially if you’re aware of less busy shortcuts, and able to not constantly walk with your eyes on your phone like a tech zombie.

And if you have the energy, some parts are even runnable, like Regents Park, but as this film highlights, the rest of it isn’t exactly run-friendly.

Getting her son ready for school is Maia (Gal Gadot). He’s diabetic so she has to make sure his blood levels are stable, before she drops him off at school.

She’s a prosecutor, but has a time for a run. She takes her phone with her, and soon she receives a call, but from a total stranger. He claims that he has her son, and swiftly proves it, and tells her that his life is in danger, unless she does exactly as he says.

He intends to keep her on her toes – literally – forcing her to run through London, with a gun he gives her, to meet up with a client of hers – and kill him. With time – and London traffic – against her, does Maia have what it takes to kill someone to save her son?

This is the latest entry in the race-against-the-clock genre, that rubs shoulders alongside the likes of Jason Statham’s 2006 Crank, 2011’s Source Code, as well as 1998’s tirelessly on-the-go Run Lola Run. Sadly it doesn’t have the same kind of stamina, certainly on the story front, which runs out of ideas pretty quick, with just the one.

It’s a simple premise, which sees Gadot’s character constantly moving to save her son. And to be fair, she’s very good at keeping on the move, as well continuing conversations with the mostly voice-only baddie, played by Damian Lewis as the Caller. But with so little story, it's tantamount to nothing more than a jogging vlog with Gadot, which would probably rake it in on OnlyFans, but several hundred steps too far for a full length feature.

Its biggest shock is the fact that Oscar-winning director (the 1999 documentary One Day in September, who has a great track record – as it were – helming documentaries, and films such as 2006’s The Last King of Scotland and 2021’s The Mauritian, thought it worthy to shoot, which in hindsight, it clearly wasn’t.

Gadot does her best, pretty much being in every scene, but with its almost real-time format, is constantly in motion; she’ll no doubt get the usual hate, for her political beliefs as an Israeli, and for being a bad actress, which is mostly unfair criticism, but this performance won’t change any of that.

If anyone should take the ‘hate’ it’s Macdonald; he attempts to make social commentary, which shouldn't be a problem with his Oscar-winning background, but it’s embarrassingly obvious, with shot after shot of the public walking around town on their phones – no shit MacSherlock, move on and now tell us something we don’t know.

Not only is the narrative lame, it simply doesn’t have the legs to stay engaging for 90 minutes, making it nothing more than a fairly pretty moving postcard of some of the city’s attractions.

Even if race-against-the-clock films are your thang, save your time - and breath, and definitely cross the road to avoid this one.