Grade: C
See How They Run is one of those movies that probably sounded like an amazing idea at the pitch meeting, and perhaps should have stayed there. It’s 1953 in London, and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is the longest running play at the West End. It’s about to celebrate its 100th performance. A hotshot Hollywood director has been commissioned to do a movie adaptation. On the night of the play’s 100th show party, the director is murdered. It’s a whodunit within a whodunit.
The director of the would-be film is played by Adrien Brody. Even though he is killed early on, we see plenty of him in flashbacks throughout. He seems to be having the time of his life playing this role, as does the rest of this large cast. They chew as much scenery as possible. I bet this movie was fun to film. Gene Siskel used to ask: is this movie better than a documentary of the actors having lunch? In the case of See How They Run, I’d rather see how they lunch.
Two inspectors come on to the scene, to investigate the murder. They are played by Saoirse Ronan and Sam Rockwell. Ronan is always so adorable that it should be against the law, and Rockwell has some fun stuff as a mustachioed 24/7 closet alcoholic. The other two faces I recognized belong to David Oyelowo – who played Martin Luther King in Selma – and Harris Dickinson, from Where the Crawdads Sing.
See How They Run is for an extremely specific niche audience. It’s a gimmicky, shallow, limited exercise in style. It’s all about costumes, sets, accents, in-jokes, and references – and doesn’t venture anywhere beyond that. Allusions to Agatha Christie’s work, murder mysteries, actors, playwrights, and the world of theatre are spread like Easter eggs. I’ll spoil one. It’s a real groaner. Someone tells Rockwell’s character (Inspector Stoppard) “He was a real hound, Inspector.” Do you get it? If so, See How They Run MIGHT be for you. Otherwise, you definitely need not apply.
Grade: C
Film Reviews by Mark 
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