See How They Run (2022)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: See How They Run (2022)

Tagline: The greatest murder ever staged.

Genre: Mystery, Comedy, Crime

Director: Tom George

Cast: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith, Harris Dickinson, Charlie Cooper, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Pearl Chanda, Sian Clifford, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, David Oyelowo, Shirley Henderson, Paul Chahidi, Lucian Msamati, Angus Wright, Tim Key

Release: 2022-09-09

Runtime: 98

Plot: In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard and eager rookie Constable Stalker take on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Jeffrey D]

The synopsis looks good. A good whodunnit, much like a good courtroom drama, are can’t miss type films.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The synopsis looks good. A good whodunnit, much like a good courtroom drama, are can’t miss type films.

The way they designed the trailer it looks almost like they wanted to make it look like a Wes Anderson picture, and it seems to be one of those old-fashioned comedy mystery pictures. Nice cast they have for it, I'd say.

 

[Wayne_j]

The way they designed the trailer it looks almost like they wanted to make it look like a Wes Anderson picture, and it seems to be one of those old-fashioned comedy mystery pictures. Nice cast they have for it, I'd say.

The first time I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago I thought it was a Wes Anderson film. They even have a few of his regular players.

 

[Jake Lipson]

When I saw this trailer, my immediate thought was, "This looks fun." I'll certainly be happy to go to this.

 

[Joe Wong]

Seems like murder mysteries are in vogue again, after the success of Knives Out. This one feels like it has a lot of Burns & Allen-type humour, with Rockwell playing the straight man and Ronan the comedic partner. I'm in!

 

[Jake Lipson]

I saw this yesterday. I've seen way worse, very recently in fact, but I have to say I was disappointed. It isn't bad, but I really wanted to like it more than I did.

It starts out with a voiceover in which a character says, "It's a whodunnit. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all." Unfortunately, the movie that follows doesn't really do anything to distinguish itself or prove that statement wrong.

Knives Out, which @Joe Wong brought up, is an obvious comparison point for this film because it is another whodunit which was a recent hit. But Rian Johnson was sincere in his vision for that movie. Although it was clearly inspired by the kind of thing that Agatha Christie would write, Johnson wasn't spoofing her work. He was making a new story with a modern perspective for a modern audience.

This film is more like a spoof of the Agatha Christie model which also uses the model it is trying to spoof. She is mentioned directly within the first couple minutes because the murder takes place at a production of the play The Mousetrap, which is based on her work. So the movie is practically begging you to consider it within the context of her work, but that doesn't really give it a distinct identity of its own. It is meta and self-aware to a fault. It makes sure to call out all of the tropes of this genre explicitly and then proceeds to do exactly the thing it is calling out. The joke is, "Oh, look, we're doing the thing we just mentioned." Unfortunately, I never found this as funny as the filmmakers appear to think it is. The screenplay is really weak here.

The extreme farcical approach also had the impact of lowering the stakes. I never really felt like I should care about these people. It also didn't feel like anyone was in danger even when the movie told me they were.

The cast is fine, but it feels like they were asked to dial their performances up to an eleven for the whole thing. I really like Saoirse Ronan in particular, but they kept giving her a variation of the same joke (she's inexperienced and/or jumps to conclusions) again and again and again. It's funny once. It's not so funny after that. The character is written to annoy Sam Rockwell's character, and she does that, but it also became exasperating for me as an audience member because they just kept doing the same thing with her. I am a big fan of Ronan's, and she is one of the reasons I wanted to see this movie. It seems to me that she was probably directed to do it this way. I don't think anyone else could have done this role better. I just don't like it that much.

Most of the best bits are in the trailer. That isn't the movie's fault. I doubt the filmmakers had much control over how Disney marketed this movie. But it does mean there's not that much else to laugh at once you've bought a ticket.

In reading over this, it sounds a lot more negative than I intended. I don't think it's that bad. I wasn't bored watching this, and it was enjoyable enough while it was being shown. I don't feel like I wasted my money or time. "Cute" is a good word to describe the movie in both a positive sense and a negative one. I would not discourage anyone who is interested from seeing it, but I can't give it a strong recommendation either. I also don't really have any desire to see this again.

However, of course comedy in particular is very subjective. So it is very possible that this may work better for some of you reading this.

 

[Josh Dial]

I watched this on opening night.

I'll echo Jake's comments almost exactly.

I think the movie was fine, but sort of a let down given how great Saoirse Ronan and Sam Rockwell are. They are good here, too, though Ronan steals the show.

The problem is both in direction and the script. The direction is alright, but there are just enough sparks of brilliance that I came away wondering if they were accidental. Near the end (not a spoiler), there is an overhead shot of a snowy doorway, and the way the shadows shoot across the ground look like stage spot lights. There were a few other small moments like this that made me think, "okay, this is something". But then it's all diminished by the largely pointless (and actually rather poorly implemented) split screens and other flourishes.

I couldn't tell if the director was second-guessing themselves and pulling back when they should be leaning in, or if there was some studio interference, or if it was all for some ill-conceived theme.

Ultimately I wasn't sure if the movie was actually--which is to say effectively--spoofing the genre. A very quick running gag (two characters, so maybe not running) that the detectives hadn't seen the play. The dramatic irony is that if they had seen it they might have figured out the murder right away. I think this could have used a punch-up in the writing to reinforce this irony. Maybe have them try to see the show twice.

Also, despite its short run time, there were a few moments where the plot dragged a bit. The dentist/pub bit for example (though it did set up a funny bit later on when Ronan's character was covering for Rockwell's).

But there were also a few really nice moments that in other movies would have slowed the plot down, but didn't in this one. The conversation in the pub is the best example.

Overall quite a bit uneven for me. It was a fine evening out, but I wanted more and got less.

7/10 (maybe even a 6.5 if the popcorn wasn't so good that night).