SEE HOW THEY RUN
***
Director: Tom George
Screenplay: Mark Chappell
Principal cast:
Sam Rockwell
Saoirse Ronan
Adrien Brody
Ruth Wilson
Reece Shearsmith
David Oyelowo
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 98 mins.
Australian release date: 29 September 2022
Riffing on Agatha Christie’s long-running play The Mousetrap, Tom George’s See How They Run is a madcap tale about a proposed movie adaptation of the smash-hit whodunnit. Set in London’s West End in 1953, it is full of stage gags and theatrical puns which may go over the heads of younger members of the audience, judging by the lack of reaction to many of these comedic references at the preview. This is not to say that it fails to deliver completely, just that older audiences will probably get the most out of it.
At a party for the production’s 100th performance, the cast and crew are gathered to celebrate their success. An obnoxious American movie director, Leo Kopernick (Adrien Brody), who’s been blacklisted back in the States, is circling the room making a nuisance of himself. He intends to make the film of the play but hates the script he’s been given by its gay writer, Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo). He manages to insult just about everyone at the soiree and has a fight with the leading man, ‘Dickie’ Attenborough (Harris Dickinson). He’s not the only impediment to the project either; Dame Agatha Christie (Shirley Henderson) has included a clause in her contract stating that a film can’t be made of The Mousetrap until six months after the theatrical run ends. When Kopernick is found dead, Scotland Yard is heavily involved in catching a serial killer on the loose in London, so assigns the jaded alcoholic Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and enthusiastic rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) to the case. As the bodies mount up, this unlikely odd couple have to overcome their differences and learn from each other in order to figure out ‘who done it.’
See How They Run is a clever mash-up of truth and fiction. It’s a fact that there’s never been a film made of The Mousetrap because Christie did, indeed, place a caveat in her contract saying that one couldn’t be made until after the play closed and, famously, it’s still running, having first opened on the West End in October 1952. Furthermore, Richard Attenborough and his wife Sheila Sim (played here by Pearl Chanda) really did appear in the original production and John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith) was a successful film producer who optioned the rights to the play. From there, though, screenwriter Mark Chappell has headed off on his own, albeit guided by the signposts that we’ve come to know and recognise since first hearing those immortal words, “There’s been a murder!” Regrettably, however, he’s spent so much effort attempting to make the film a meta-comedy, trying to incorporate modern allusions into the classic 1950s’ structure, that he’s forgotten about the importance of an overarching script linking all these in-jokes and witticisms together. While the gags are often very funny, the story itself starts to plod (sorry).
Saoirse Ronan is delightful as the ingenue cop constantly leaping to conclusions (and she gets all the best lines) but Sam Rockwell is somewhat less successful as the past-it sleuth, and his muddled accent doesn’t help - it’s sometimes sounds Irish, sometimes even Australian and, occasionally, American, but hardly ever English. To overcome this limitation, he tends to speak softly, making some of his dialogue difficult to hear. The rest of the cast seem to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves, camping up their respective roles in true British theatrical tradition. As you’d expect in a film set in London’s theatre world in the ‘50s, See How They Run looks superb. The costumes, hair and makeup are excellent and the production was able to turn COVID restrictions to its advantage by filming in West End theatres like The Dominion, The Old Vic and St. Martin’s (home of The Mousetrap) that were closed because of lockdowns.
See How They Run is an irreverent piss-take of the whodunnit genre. Mature viewers will have fun picking out the film and theatre references but, unfortunately, not as much figuring out who the villain is. It’s a shame that, in the end, you’re past caring.
Screenplay: Mark Chappell
Principal cast:
Sam Rockwell
Saoirse Ronan
Adrien Brody
Ruth Wilson
Reece Shearsmith
David Oyelowo
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 98 mins.
Australian release date: 29 September 2022
Riffing on Agatha Christie’s long-running play The Mousetrap, Tom George’s See How They Run is a madcap tale about a proposed movie adaptation of the smash-hit whodunnit. Set in London’s West End in 1953, it is full of stage gags and theatrical puns which may go over the heads of younger members of the audience, judging by the lack of reaction to many of these comedic references at the preview. This is not to say that it fails to deliver completely, just that older audiences will probably get the most out of it.
At a party for the production’s 100th performance, the cast and crew are gathered to celebrate their success. An obnoxious American movie director, Leo Kopernick (Adrien Brody), who’s been blacklisted back in the States, is circling the room making a nuisance of himself. He intends to make the film of the play but hates the script he’s been given by its gay writer, Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo). He manages to insult just about everyone at the soiree and has a fight with the leading man, ‘Dickie’ Attenborough (Harris Dickinson). He’s not the only impediment to the project either; Dame Agatha Christie (Shirley Henderson) has included a clause in her contract stating that a film can’t be made of The Mousetrap until six months after the theatrical run ends. When Kopernick is found dead, Scotland Yard is heavily involved in catching a serial killer on the loose in London, so assigns the jaded alcoholic Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and enthusiastic rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) to the case. As the bodies mount up, this unlikely odd couple have to overcome their differences and learn from each other in order to figure out ‘who done it.’
See How They Run is a clever mash-up of truth and fiction. It’s a fact that there’s never been a film made of The Mousetrap because Christie did, indeed, place a caveat in her contract saying that one couldn’t be made until after the play closed and, famously, it’s still running, having first opened on the West End in October 1952. Furthermore, Richard Attenborough and his wife Sheila Sim (played here by Pearl Chanda) really did appear in the original production and John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith) was a successful film producer who optioned the rights to the play. From there, though, screenwriter Mark Chappell has headed off on his own, albeit guided by the signposts that we’ve come to know and recognise since first hearing those immortal words, “There’s been a murder!” Regrettably, however, he’s spent so much effort attempting to make the film a meta-comedy, trying to incorporate modern allusions into the classic 1950s’ structure, that he’s forgotten about the importance of an overarching script linking all these in-jokes and witticisms together. While the gags are often very funny, the story itself starts to plod (sorry).
Saoirse Ronan is delightful as the ingenue cop constantly leaping to conclusions (and she gets all the best lines) but Sam Rockwell is somewhat less successful as the past-it sleuth, and his muddled accent doesn’t help - it’s sometimes sounds Irish, sometimes even Australian and, occasionally, American, but hardly ever English. To overcome this limitation, he tends to speak softly, making some of his dialogue difficult to hear. The rest of the cast seem to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves, camping up their respective roles in true British theatrical tradition. As you’d expect in a film set in London’s theatre world in the ‘50s, See How They Run looks superb. The costumes, hair and makeup are excellent and the production was able to turn COVID restrictions to its advantage by filming in West End theatres like The Dominion, The Old Vic and St. Martin’s (home of The Mousetrap) that were closed because of lockdowns.
See How They Run is an irreverent piss-take of the whodunnit genre. Mature viewers will have fun picking out the film and theatre references but, unfortunately, not as much figuring out who the villain is. It’s a shame that, in the end, you’re past caring.