#44: SEE HOW THEY RUN

 

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith, Harris Dickinson, Charlie Cooper, Shirley Henderson, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Pearl Chanda, Paul Chahidi, Sian Clifford, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Lucian Msamati and Tim Key. Written by Mark Chappell. Directed by Tom George. Running time 98 minutes.

Sam Rockwell is great in everything he's done. Indeed I would contest he's never made a bad film. He may have appeared in a bad film, but I put it to you, m'lord that he wasn't bad in that film. Unless of course that film is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when he was badly miscast as Zaphod Beeblebrox. But I digress and I'm only in the second paragraph. Actually the worst bit of casting in THGTTG wasn't Sam Rockwell but Mos Def as Ford Prefect, but that's another review for another time. 

ANYWAY.

See How They Run. The first Hollywood film to attempt to duplicate the success of the vastly superior Knives Out, and desperate to cash in on the cinema public's apparent appetite for whodunnit murder mysteries fuelled by the likes of the inferior remakes of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile .

Set in London's theatre land in 1953, SHTR sees arrogant Hollywood writer Leo Köpernick (Adrien Broody) murdered backstage at the after show party honouring the 100th performance of Agatha Christie's The Mouse Trap - the world's longest running theatre show. His body dumped on stage. 

Enter stage right, world-weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and plucky, eager, but inept sidekick Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) on the case and hunting the killer. Using every device in the whodunnit playbook including flashback, split screen, narration, misdirection, multiple points of view, and foreshadowing all told with the comedy dial cranked up to 11. Each of the cast is interviewed and briefly held up to be the possible murderer, but as the bodies pile up the actual reveal is impossible to guess through deduction. I guessed it because it couldn't be anyone else.

Sadly it's the comedy that provides the film's undoing. Because it's played as a broad comedy, almost as theatrically as The Play What Went Wrong, the film has nowhere to go, no peril, no jeopardy, no drama and absolutely no stakes. That coupled with the fact that several of the characters are actual real-life people, Richard Attenbough (Harris Dickinson) and Agatha Christie (Shirley Henderson) all conspire to give the film a strange, somewhat clumsy feel. And overall it never really engages, it feels a little flat and when Rockwell and Ronan are off screen a tad dull.

While the film looks superb, and the cast lead by Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan are all good, although sadly due to the size of the cast, none of these extremely gifted actors are given nearly enough screen time to shine. 

Murder mysteries only success on the strength of their lead heroes and this is where See How They Run delivers in spades! Rockwell and Ronan have great chemistry together and their characters give this film a real heart, despite finding this film somewhat disappointing I'm hoping they get another crack at solving a murder, they deserve it. But only if the excellent Tim Key comes back as their boss.

I doubt this will run and run, but it was kinda fun.

7/10