See How They Run (2022)

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Wes Anderson smirk humor meets Knives Out in Tom George’s See How They Run, which takes the mythological legacy of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and transmogrifies it into a tangential whodunit. The Mousetrap began its historic 70-year run in London’s West End in 1952 where it still plays today – its only interruption being a year-long hiatus due to the global pandemic – making it easily the longest-tenured stage play of all time.

Famously, the murder mystery contains a twist ending of which the audience is asked not to reveal to anyone after leaving the theater. See How They Run sets itself in 1953 just as word of The Mousetrap was really getting around. Like any hot commodity, Hollywood needs a piece of the pie. A blacklisted director, Leo Kopernick (Adrien Brody), is tasked with helming the first-ever adaptation but is experiencing creative differences with the screenwriter and producer. Soon after, he’s murdered backstage by a masked individual. Seeing as he was an unlikable fellow, there are plenty of suspects.

In comes the reticent Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) who’s assigned to the case and is partnered with a bubbly young rookie, Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan). They question Kopernick’s colleagues, acquaintances, and enemies to try and find clues. We discover more motives and even some intriguing and plausible red herrings along the way.

The always-reliable Rockwell, who typically approaches his comedic roles with an extra punch, is much more subdued here. Never trying to do too much in the way of humor, he masters the art of subtle expressions and slow side-eye glances that give off an implied haughtiness to his character. However, Stoppard’s volatile arc makes it difficult for us to empathize with him.

Director Tom George, in his film debut, tries injecting energy into the plodding storyboard with stylized framing and editing, particularly in the form of an overused split-screen reverse shot effect that becomes more distracting than effective and rarely ever means anything symbolic. To go along with the cute filmmaking, the self-referential tone is a bit too on the nose at times. A character will lambaste the use of flashbacks in cinema right after the director decides to show us one. At one point, Brody’s character repeats his credo, “If you’ve seen one whodunit, you’ve seen ‘em all.” Okay.

Luckily, the movie has its foot firmly planted in ‘50s cinema, with references ranging from The African Queen to Rex Harrison to Grace Kelly’s stint with Hitchcock. This adds a texture to the story that would have otherwise yielded a fairly dry murder mystery.

Although, unlike the best whodunits, See How They Run doesn’t treat its inspector like a sort of superhero like, say, Hercule Poirot (also from Agatha Christie) or Knives Out’s Benoit Blanc – authoritative figures whose intellect the audience is constantly being challenged by; figures that we desperately try and fail to match wits with to solve the murders first.

The big twist in See How They Run won’t blow your mind. But that’s not because of who the killer is, rather how we come to that realization. Ultimately, it’s not only too easy to solve the mystery but we see too much of the Inspector’s process to the point where the reveal becomes less impressive. Nonetheless, the movie is enjoyable enough as a crime caper with clever context, some funny bits, likable leads with good chemistry, and a wealth of interesting personalities to go around.