My congratulations to Rian Johnson, because his recent whodunit hit Knives Out has sparked something of a genre resurgence (you have the smash series Only Murders In The Building and The After Party taking off, among other things). Director Tom George’s new feature See How They Run offers up what’s a pretty meta and self-referential take on the old-school criminal caper, partially adapted from Agatha Cristie’s iconic play The Mousetrap. It serves as a sweet yet slightly twisted tribute to Christie’s work, while also giving us what I felt was some charming development between its two leads.
Saiorse Ronan and Sam Rockwell respectively are Scotland Yard sleuths Stalker and Stoppard, with Ronan being the new recruit to the field after Commissioner Scott (Tim Key) assigns her as part of a pro-women diversity initiative. After Adrien Brody’s obnoxious director Leo Kopernick is mysteriously killed with his body left on stage after a Mousetrap performance. The suspect list includes movie producer John Woolf(Reece Shearsmith), his wife Edana (Sian Clifford), producer Petula Spencer (Ruth Wilson) and film writer Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo) who was set to pen the Mousetrap movie adaption.
We get various flashbacks showing Leo’s different conflicts that could have led to possible alibies through the cast as to why he could have possibly gotten himself clapped. Those lookbacks are certainly timely because it turns out the killer still hasn’t gotten their blood satisfaction in fully and they’re still on the loose.
Her character name “Stalker” is apt, since being told she’s not cut out for this kind of thing or that she’s in over her head doesn’t deter her from continuing her investigation. And funny enough, one of my favorite aspects was how her and Stoppard’s relationship evolved throughout the story. Ronan’s downright loveable in how proper and inexperienced she is while still doggedly pursuing the culprit, eager to jump on any possible lead catching her eye.
Rockwell’s Stoppard is unhappily divorced and off rip he doesn’t seem to have much time for this bouncy rookie. But even as he wants to at first keep distant, he’s never exactly *mean* or unkind towards Stalker, and eventually she melts him down. That definitely made me want to see more entries with this duo together in the future.
Mich like Ronan, Oyelowo is much more known for his dramatic roles in performances like Selma and Nightingale. But he’s damned hilarious as a vain and eccentric uptight writer. the way he exclaims “only I can do me” made me snort out my Sprite. Something about his character was somewhat Brian Griffin-ish in a good way, the egotistical fop who thinks he’s a genius. Shirley Henderson also has an understated side performance as Agatha Christie herself, who slips into the storyline in a pretty funny fashion.
Now this mystery isn’t as twist-heavy as Knives Out was, See How they run prefers to be more tongue-in-cheek and to poke fun at the tropes of its genre. Many characters are pretty genre savvy, well aware that they could be both a suspect and a potential victim of the killer. But when I watched Knives Out for the first time. I think I had a hunch on who the culprit was. Without spoiling anything, I was actually a bit more surprised by Run’s eventual reveal, and it’s executed in a fashion that makes quite a bit of sense. It’s a unique tradition in fact for the original Mousetrap stage play for audience members following the show to not reveal the plot twists, to the point where the estate of Christie was irritated by the ending leaking online to Wikipedia.
The parodying and detective aspects of See How they Run are certainly strong aspects about it, but Ronan and Rockwell have a nice connection working together that I thought elevated the story and made it an even more fun watch. So if you’re a long-time christie fan or are just up for an engaging period piece. I’ll give this a recommendation. If you’ve seen it, let us know your take on it at FAN’s social media hubs!