Surprisingly Not Much Running!

You know which actor I like? This might seem like a tough question, if you know me, you know that I like a lot of actors, and if you don’t, there are a ton of actors out there, but for the inquisitive among you, you are thinking, “This is a review of ‘See How They Run’, so probably either Sam Rockwell or Saoirse Ronan.” The smart person that you are would be right on both counts. Sam Rockwell specifically, but Saoirse Ronan is great as well, and they really are the reason to watch See How They Run.

Sam is the seasoned world-weary Inspector Stoppard, and Saoirse is the young overly excited Constable Stalker, and they bounce off each other wonderfully as they try and solve the mystery of who killed Adrien Brody’s jerky American director Leo Köpernick. All this is framed around the pre-production of a movie based on original staging of Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap. This humorous take on a Christie-esque mystery really allows all the players to have a few fun moments in the spotlight, but it always comes back to the duo of Rockwell and Ronan.

However, nothing really separates ‘See How They Run’ from a lot of other who-done-its. It is a long-standing genre, so if getting fancy people in a room and interrogating them isn’t your cup of tea, even if they are being quite funny, you can probably skip this film, or watch it when it comes to Hulu or HBO Max or wherever it goes after its theatrical run. I on the other hand love this sort of thing, and to have it done by two very talented actors is a treat. Also, in this age of streaming, this has been the type of movie to head straight streaming instead of going to theaters, so it was fun curl up in my theater chair with my slushy and watch actors chew on some scenery.

In hindsight, this review almost seems unnecessary, if this kind of movie looks like something you would like, you probably will. It was well-written, well-staged, and well-acted, but if you think it looks like too much talking and funnily enough, not enough running, you will probably be bored. For me ‘See How They Run’ was comfort food, and I was more than happy to give it an hour and a half of my Sunday evening.