Running on Empty

In the movie, the Pope family who have been running from the FBI for many years developed a strong emotional bonding among themselves. This can be seen when Danny kept telling Lorna that his family needed him and he couldn't leave them to study at Julliard. Annie and Arthur played an authoritative role, which includes both responsiveness and demandingness on parenting. This is observed from their interaction with their children. For instance, they responded to their children's needs but at the sane time demanded their children to behave in ways that would not attract problems to the already troubled family.

Danny's relationship with Lorna started gradually after several coincidental meetings where they started knowing each other in a deeper level. This could be explained using self-disclosure under Social Penetration Theory. Their relationship became even closer after Danny confessed his family secret to Lorna. The interpersonal attraction between Danny and Lorna is also a result of both these individuals shared similarities in certain arena. For example, they both choice cooking as an elective. However, several contact in the characters interest can be observed. This can be explained by the theory of "opposite attracts", which states that traits in potential partners compliments each others traits.

In the movie, Denny who knew from the very beginning that he wont be attending college went for Julliards audition because deep inside, he has a desire to study music. This can be seen from his admiration towards his maternal grandmother who was an outstanding figure in the field of music. These scenes successfully portrayed conflicting feeling between his goals and his love towards his family. Regret can be observed in Annie when her father spoke to her on the bright future she has given up. Annie did not want to se e her son walking the same path she did, as a result, she was willing to let go of him to pursue his dreams.