SEE HOW THEY RUN

London 1953, and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has just celebrated its 100^th performance. Obnoxious American producer Leo Köpernick  (Adrien Brody) wants to turn the play into a big Hollywood movie, and has managed to alienate the entire cast and crew in the process. Early doors, and Kopernick is murdered in a gruesome fashion, and everyone is a suspect. Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) is placed in charge of the investigation, and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) is the novice constable assisting him.

An old-fashioned whodunit, See How They Run is the first feature for writer Mark Chappel and director Tom George. Both have a fair amount of TV credits under their respective belts, but no movie experience, and unfortunately this is quite evident. George utilises a lot of flashbacks, which is a cop-out. Your common-or-garden whodunit should be able to find a better way of relaying this information, other than the constant use of flashbacks. In fact, Brody is more present in the movie after he’s been murdered than when he was alive.

What we have here is a case of great trailer, average movie. There is a vitality and vigour in the trailer that’s just not present in the movie. The story is oddly lifeless, and sleep walks to its conclusion. The script needed to be far sharper, and the humour needed to be far funnier. As it is, generally it’s just about okay, which isn’t good enough.

Ronan is relaxed in the role. For a change, she gets to use her real accent, and doesn’t have to hide her Irishness. Rockwell, on the other hand, doesn’t. I’ve heard worse American actors in English roles, and Rockwell plays the role of the cynical, world weary detective well. It makes a change to see him operating in a more restrained register than usual. The rest of the ensemble may look impressive on the poster, but not much is made of them. Ruth Wilson’s role is miniscule, whereas David Oyelowo’s is too large. Oyelowo is really belting it out to the back row, overacting to the extent that he appears to think he’s in a stage play, rather than acting in a movie about one.