IR Film Review: SEE HOW THEY RUN [Searchlight]

The aspect of a murder mystery with a bit of chicanery is always an interesting premise. ”See How They Run” is an interesting amalgamation because it almost thinks like a Wes Anderson movie and has some of its actors and yet is its own separate beast (and not quite the same). Using the performance of Agatha Christie's “The Mousetrap” as a backdrop, the film is set in the mid 1950s London (though it feels more like the late 1920s) where the murder on the stage takes over the screen as the play itself is about to be made into movie by a smarmy lush director (Adrien Brody). The reversal plot structure plays with the idea of the old studio system pictures whereas a gumshoe detective (Sam Rockwell) needs to discover who killed who and where and with what. The build has certain essences of “Clue” without the beauty of understanding why the tongue-in-cheek nature of that film and the board game by extension work.

The actors are hamming it up in their own certain ways but there is a lack of balance between the genuine nature of what the film might be (which is sort of outdated) and the sardonic approach. Rockwell is playing his best drunk who knows what and how he functions with a sense of aloofness and yet with a sharpness to get the job done. Soairse Ronan as a new constable learning the detective game (who is also dealing with the sexism of the time) is the one actor that really gets what the balance really needs to be. She plays the constable with such earnestness and knowing but with the lines speaking on different levels. As the McGuffin pursues towards the filmend as a reference to The Mousetrap itself, the ingenuity of the piece simply wanes. This is a character piece granted but it wants to make the context that the plot itself is dexterous enough to maintain the tension as it is revealed. It simply comes off more plain than it would like to be. “See How They Run” is made decently enough. The issue is who it is made for, considering the talent involved and the tone because it runs aside of most of those focal points and comes off more as an exercise. C

By Tim Wassberg