“See How They Run”
Movie Review
"See How They Run" is a comedy mystery film directed by Tom
George, written by Mark Chappell and produced by Damien Jones and Gina Carter.
The film stars Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Reese
Shearsmith, Harris Dickinson and David Oyelowo.
In London in 1953, Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap celebrated its
100th performance, and disgraced American director Leo Kopernick tried to
persuade producer John Woolf to direct a film adaptation. After Kopernick's
drunken behavior towards the female lead, Sheila Sim, leads to a confrontation
with her husband and co-star Richard Attenborough, Kopernick is killed
backstage by an unseen assailant.
Inspector Stopbart investigates the murder under the shadow of an
inexperienced constable stalker. Everyone in the theater, including the play's
producer Petula Spencer and Woolf's wife Edana Romney, were declared suspects
and victims. Stoppard tried to shut down the theater until the murder was
solved, but Metropolitan Police Commissioner Harold Scott intervened and hired
Stalker to help with the investigation.
Stoppard and Stalker search Kopernick's room at the Savoy Hotel and find
his address book containing the women's details. The hotel manager recalls
Kopernicks' violent argument with screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris, who admits
to arguing with Kopernick over the director's vision for an action-packed
ending for The Mousetrap. Mervyn, who lives with his hot-headed
"son-in-law" Gio, remembers an "ordinary girl" who came to
the hotel with Kopernick's son.
Stoppard
and Stalker interrogate Woolf, who was blackmailed by Kopernick after
discovering Woolf's affair with his assistant Ann. Dennis, an usher at the
theater, gives an inappropriate description of a suspect; Attenborough and Sim
were also questioned. Spencer
explains that she optioned The Mousetrap's film rights to Woolf, but he would be
contractually unable to produce the adaptation until the show had closed.
At a pub, Stoppard bonds with Stalker and reveals that his unfaithful
wife left him after having a child with another man. Driving a drunken Stoppard
House, Stalker finds a news article and a photo of his ex-wife, which fits
Mervyn's description of a "housewife wearing glasses". With Denise's
description, this leads Stalker to suspect that Stoppard may be the killer, and
she searches Kopernick's address book for his ex-wife.
Stoppard and Stalker attend a performance of The Mousetrap, during which
Mervyn, Woolf, Dennis, Geo and Stoppard leave the auditorium; The stalker soon
follows, seeing Stoppard receiving his gloves. In the foyer, Mervyn is
strangled to death by a gloved figure. Stalker finds Stoppard kneeling on the body
and knocks him unconscious with a snow shovel.
Stalker and Scott accuses Stoppard of carrying out the murders. Stalker
summons Joyce, the mother of Kopernick's son, but she is not Stoppard's
ex-wife, and frees her. The stalker takes Joyce and her son home, and Joyce
mentions hearing a man with a "village nerd" accent. Reading Mervyn's
research on The Mousetrap, Stoppard realizes the killer's identity and flees to
the suspect's apartment, where the stalker has already broken in and finds the
evidence he needs: The killer is Denise.
Attenborough, Sim, Woolf, Ann, Spencer and her elderly mother receive an
invitation to dinner at Agatha Christie's home in Wallingford, Berkshire. The
Butler Fellows are confused by their arrival, but Christie's husband Max Mallowan
lets them in. The group is held at gunpoint by Dennis, whom Spencer's mother
identifies as Dennis Corrigan, an abused child whose brother's death sparks the
plot of The Mousetrap. Dennis explains that he killed Kopernick and Mervyn in
an attempt to stop the play and its adaptation, who were frustrated by their
brother's use of the tragedy for entertainment.
Having forged the
invitations to lure everyone together, Dennis has captured Edana, mistaking her
for Christie. Christie enters with tea, including a poisoned cup for Dennis
which Fellowes inadvertently drinks instead. An
armed Stoppard arrives and a shootout ensues; Sim distracts Dennis with a
Molotov cocktail, and before Agatha sends Dennis with a shovel, Stalker takes a
bullet to save Stoppard, matching Kopernicks' narrative pitch. It turns out
that the bullet actually hit Stoppard. Some time later, Stalker passes her
sergeant's exam, and a recovered Stoppard receives the King's Police and Fire
Services Medal, and takes part in another performance of The Mousetrap.
"See How They Run" is a fiction based on Agatha Christie's long-running play "Mousetrap," and while it may not be a funny whodunit, it will have you hooked to its comical moments. A film that makes fun of itself and doesn't hesitate to step outside the bounds of filmmaking. Be it the story or the cinematography, director Tom George's effort is certainly innovative. The British humor in the film is perfect and it is a film worth watching. The film clearly aims to provide complete entertainment and it certainly succeeds in its objective. This mystery comedy has its own genre and is very unique.
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