An American film director (Adrien Brody) looking to adapt hit play The Mousetrap is killed, with stage and screen production members all suspects.

See How They Run

Cert - 12, Run-time - 1 hour 38 minutes,

Director - Tom George

With Disney’s recent D23 convention and even myself last week praising the modernity of Bodies Bodies Bodies it’s always nice to see an original film which successfully embraces the traditional. It’s part of what makes murder-mystery - likely one of a string that we’ll begin to see in the wake of Knives Out’s success - See How They Run such a delight as it travels along its 98-minute course.

Part of this traditionality comes from the theatrical context of the proceedings as a film director (Adrien Brody) looking to adapt recent hit play The Mousetrap is killed. The killer could be any of the figures involved in the stage and screen productions - we run through the events building up to the murder as a pacey prologue - and it’s up to tired and to-the-point Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) to find out who it is before more people fall victim to the killer.

Perhaps not an obvious pairing, Rockwell and Ronan are excellent together creating plenty of chuckles along the way as their personalities, experiences and eagerness clash. Ronan in particular appears to be having great fun in the role, emitting from the screen to simply create a more enjoyable feature. It’s the case for a number of the performances in a rather starry cast which includes the likes of Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith and David Oyelowo.

While perhaps with the amount of suspects we see some get a fair deal more screentime than others, those we do spend time with are generally seen alone as we go place-to-place for interviews and flashbacks, this certainly doesn’t make it obvious as to who the killer is. In fact, the film as a whole doesn’t completely follow a conventional whodunnit style by including scenes of Stoppard and Stalker - Stalker’s notepad featuring almost every detail learned and found at any point - deliberating and back-and-forthing their own theories about who the killer could be.

As the film travels through its narrative it begins to lean into this idea, not quite removing ambiguity and certainly still including a proper twist, reveal and build-up to this point, but it’s interesting to see the often humour-tinged conversations between the two officers. Caught in a theatrical world which the film acknowledges and plays up towards. Using the context of The Mousetrap not just for a handful of gags but also as inspiration for the traditional murder-mystery nature and something to bounce and develop ideas from.

With what it provides See How They Run is a rather pleasant embracing of the traditional. Telling its story through amusing characters and contextual details which provide a dash of fun along the way. It’s easy to engage, and to some extent play along. While not all characters quite get the time they perhaps should have that which we do get is certainly enjoyable enough for the span of the film.

Jamie Skinner -Three stars