See How They Run (2022) Review

 "How much longer do you intend to hold us all hostage?"

-Petula Spencer

When a murder occurs at the theater performing the famous whodunnit, The Mousetrap, Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are assigned to the case.  As they interview the suspects, parallels between The Mousetrap and the actual murder become apparent and no one is safe.

What Works:

Far and away the best part of the movie is Adrien Brody, who plays a drunken, asshole of a movie director.  He is the movie's narrator and doesn't much care for whodunnits.  He also is the only character in the movie to have any sort of personality.  It's too bad he doesn't get more screen-time because he brings some liveliness and conflict to the film.  

This is a mystery comedy film and the comedy is very hit-or-miss.  There are some genuine hits though and I laughed a fair amount.

Finally, this movie gets very meta in terms of whodunnits.  It explores the structure of turning a play into a film and the whodunnits of Agatha Christie.  It reminded me a lot of the movie Seven Psychopaths.  The meta stuff doesn't always work, but it's at least interesting and creative.

What Sucks:

The biggest problem with this movie is the characters.  Starting with the leads, I was really excited to see Sam Rockwell was playing the detective character.  Unfortunately, Inspector Stoppard's character is that he doesn't really want to be there and is bored and/or drunk most of the time.  Sam Rockwell plays that character well.  Unfortunately, that character is very boring and it feels like he just doesn't want to be there.  Not exactly a compelling main character.

I also really like Saoirse Ronan, but her character is written as annoying and she talks too much.  Ronan plays the character well, but it doesn't make her likable.  We spend the vast majority of the movie with these two, which isn't nearly as interesting or fun as it should have been.  I don't think it's the actors fault, but the characters.

As for the side characters, apart from Adrien Brody's, none of them were very interesting or had much in the way of personality.  They were one-note at best and zero-note at worst.  The fun part of whodunnits is having a group of colorful characters and trying to figure out which of them did it.  Clue is probably the best example.  I didn't care about any of these characters, so I wasn't worried that more of them would be killed off and I only had a passing interest in knowing who the killer was.

Finally, the best whodunnits are generally confined to one location.  It makes the interactions between characters more meaningful and potentially explosive because there is nowhere for anyone to escape to.  Even The Mousetrap has all the characters confined at a snowbound mansion.  I assumed this movie would take place entirely at the theater.  That would have been really cool and allowed the movie to get even more meta.  That isn't the case.  I would say only about a quarter of the movie takes place in the theater.  Most of the movie is the police wandering around London.  That's very disappointing and causes the film to lose the spirit of classic whodunnits.  

Verdict:

See How They Run has some funny moments, some interesting meta commentary, and a great performance from Adrien Brody, but the rest of the characters suck and the movie should have stuck with one location instead of moving around so much.  It isn't a bad movie, but it's very disappointing for someone who loves whodunnits.  

 5/10: Meh