Movie Details
Movie: See How They Run(2022)
Director: Tom George
Cast: Kieran Hodgson, Pearl Chanda, and Gregory Cox
Genres: Mystery/Comedy
Release date: 9 September 2022
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
Language: English
Duration: 1h 38m
Trailer
Synopsis
The stage play The Mousetrap has been performed in London since 1952 and has only been interrupted by Covid. And it will be played for about a few more years because Agatha Christie fans are loyal to her and this lady writes good detective stories not only in books. You can also go to The Mousetrap in the Czech Republic and maybe, unlike me, if you do, you will enjoy the film See How They Run a little more. It is a very playful meta detective comedy, in which you won’t get lost if you don’t know the plot, but the whole time you might have the feeling, like me, that you’re missing something.
The plot takes place in London in 1953, when someone murders a famous Hollywood director who was supposed to adapt The Mousetrap. But someone doesn’t care. It soon becomes clear that the late Leo Köpernick had a talent not only for making films, but also for making enemies, and other truths surface not only about him but also about the game itself and the people who revolve around it. Experienced inspector Stoppard and his young and perhaps overzealous colleague Stalker are to track down the murderer. And the work will be overwhelming.
See How They Run: At first glance, Crime Is Our Business is a fine crime comedy in the style of Agatha Christie’s literary detective stories. The two heroes search, get confused a few times, their secrets come to the surface, and at the end, there will be a big resolution. The whole thing is shot with lightness and playfulness, and Tom George manages to build a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere even though people die in his film. That fun and playfulness lies primarily in the fact that George is not afraid to play with genre and clichés and knows very well that his audience knows the rules of Agatha Christie’s detective stories. And he plays according to them. He doesn’t go against them and try to deny or bend them like Rian Johnson did in Knives Out, but he sides with the audience. Those who enjoy the fact that exactly what they expect will happen on the screen. And the director knows they know it. Adrien Brody himself says so right at the beginning, that in stories like this, usually the least likable character that no one likes dies, and since no one likes him, he dies. Because that’s how it goes.
George gives the audience what they want from a story like this while managing to stay on top of things and not shy away from confronting the audience. On the one hand, it’s gratifying, because the lightness of Crime Is Our Business is quite infectious, and even if the budget was probably not the biggest and the whole thing looks very theatrical, George made a big deal out of it. As well as actors who very willingly play caricatures of frowning detectives with a secret, cute hard-working policewomen and theater stars with snobbish manners.
However, this is not enough for George and he works here with another plane and places his plot in the real world, so among his suspects are for example Richard Attenborough or the real Agatha Christie, but unfortunately, he is unable to extract anything interesting from this plane and it seems slightly superfluous. That is, as an effort to be the target at all costs, even in places where it actually leads to nothing. So if the fact that the actors studied the movements and speech of real artists from the middle of the last century is not enough to satisfy you. It’s not useful for anything else and it’s hard to say how many people will appreciate it.
Overall, however, George has made a fine, clever crime comedy that impresses with its old worldliness and “Britishness” in the best sense of the word. The deliberately clichéd story is pulled by good actors and it’s nice to watch, but from the beginning, I felt that the creators were trying to create something more than just a tribute to a famous game and an even more famous writer. And that they didn’t do it as well as Johnson, because despite all the ideas and efforts to play with the viewer and the story, they lacked the courage to really and forcefully step beyond the shadow of both Christie and The Mousetrap. Fortunately, it’s enough for a good crime comedy.
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