By: Andrew Wing

See How They Run is a 2022 mystery comedy directed by Tom George, written by Mark Chappell, and produced by Damian Jones and Gina Carter. The film stars Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Green Mile), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Little Women), Adrien Brody (The Pianist, King Kong), Ruth Wilson (Locke, Anna Karenina), Reece Shearsmith (Shaun of the Dead), Harris Dickinson (The King’s Man), and David Oyelowo (Selma, Rise of the Planet of the Apes).

In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard (Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Ronan) take on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

See How They Run was theatrically released by Searchlight Pictures in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2022, and in the United States one week later on September 16, 2022.

THE GOOD

Ever since Rian Johnson’s Knives Out hit the scene in 2019, I have been a huge fan of the whodunit genre. They are just so much fun and because of my fascination with the genre, I of course went ahead and consumed some of the classics of the genre like the legendary Sidney Lumet’s 1974 Murder on the Orient Express, Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 classic Clue, and recently Kenneth Brannagh’s Death on the Nile (see Ted’s full review here). All that said, once I saw the trailer for See How They Run, I was pumped. Not only because it was another whodunit, but also because it featured two of my favorite actors in Sam Rockwell, and arguably the best young actress right now in Saoirse Ronan. So was I right to be so excited, or was I rather let down? Keep reading to find out!

I can’t say that it matched my expectations, but it definitely did not let me down. Tom George’s feature film directorial debut was to put it simply, a good time. There was a lot I enjoyed about his direction here and I’m excited to see what he does next. I also was quite impressed with Mark Chappell’s screenplay. It is so hard to keep an audience on their toes and engaged nowadays and thanks to Chappell’s script that kept me guessing, I was locked in from start to finish and I was totally surprised by the epic conclusion this film had. I was pleased overall with what I got from them, and there were other smaller things I could touch on like the editing, production design, and music, but let’s dive into what put my butt in the seat in the first place, the cast!

It’s only right that I start with the woman who just fails to give a bad performance in anything she is in, and that is the extremely talented Saoirse Ronan. I obviously knew she had the comedic chops after watching her in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird back in 2017, but I was blown away by how funny she was in this. You can ask my girlfriend who I saw it with, but I was literally chuckling at every line of dialogue her character had. Her chemistry with Sam Rockwell, who actually gave a great performance that was honestly unlike anything I’ve seen from him before, was amazing and the two of them definitely carried the film in my opinion.

Despite me having that sentiment, there were a number of other performances I enjoyed here. First with Tim Key, who played Commissioner Harrold Scott. Similar to Ronan, every line of dialogue he had made me laugh, and I was just really shocked at how much I enjoyed his presence in the film given that this was the first I had seen of him. I was also a big fan of Harris Dickinson’s small supporting comedic performance in this as the one and only Richard Attenborough, and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but I think Harris Dickinson is a star in the making and I absolutely cannot wait to see him in Triangle of Sadness (watch the preview here) which comes out in just over a week. Oh and lastly, just like he did in The French Dispatch (see my full review here) from last year, Adrien Brody was just fantastic in his limited screen time.

THE BAD

Alright, this is difficult because there is no denying that See How They Run is a good movie. It’s a breezy watch with a unique story, but there was just something missing from me putting it in that upper echelon of the whodunit genre like the aforementioned Knives Out, which just so happens to be getting its own sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (watch the preview here).

I don’t know what it was, but some of the jokes fell flat for me, and maybe that’s because this film is very British when it comes to its sense of humor, and it was also just pretty cheesy if I had to be completely honest. More than that, there were some performances I just wasn’t a fan of, especially David Oyelowo’s. Now I think Oyelowo is an amazing actor, but I just didn’t love him in this particular film and I think it’s mainly because it’s a comedy and I strongly believe that Oyelowo is better suited for dramas.

THE VERDICT

Thanks to fantastic performances from the leads Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, Tom George’s See How They Run is a good time from start to finish thanks to an engaging script full of perfectly dry British humor, making it a great addition to the whodunit genre.

Sure, it’s no Knives Out, but it’s still a breezy and bouncy watch that is well worth you making the trip to the theaters for!