See How They Run didn't make as much of an impact as it deserved to on its cinema release back in September, but the brilliant murder mystery has now arrived on Disney+ for hopefully a second wind.
Much like the mystery the movie is about, See How They Run has more to it than meets the eye. It presents, in trailers and in posters, as a classically-British comedy whodunnit – its cast and creators are certainly cut from that cloth.
However, also much like the mystery that underpins the story, See How They Run is much more than a British Knives Out. Yes, it's stylish and yes, it's funny, but director Tom George (This Country) and writer Mark Chappell craft an unexpectedly heartfelt and meta-movie about what it means to tell a story.
At just over an hour and a half, See How They Run wastes no time in setting its machinations, narrated by Adrian Brody's Leo Köpernick – an unlikeable movie director from Hollywood tasked with turning Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap – the play version celebrating its 100th birthday — into a film.
A wrench is thrown in, however, when he's murdered.
Watch See How They Run on Disney+
What unfolds is exactly what you expect from a whodunnit, and just what Köpernick tells us to expect: a world-weary detective (Sam Rockwell as Inspector Stoppard) and his plucky sidekick (Saoirse Ronan as Constable Stalker) tasked with excluding each potential suspect, all of whom have motives and secrets of their own.
Add a series of unpredictable twists and turns and you've got all the elements that make up a perfect genre film.
What's best about See How They Run is that it knows this. It knows what you're expecting and it delivers, but also subverts by playing into an audience's intelligence as well as its pathos.
Most importantly, though, See How They Run is funny as hell. We were lucky enough to see it twice before writing this review, and in both screenings, people were gasping and guffawing.
There is a good deal of physical comedy laced throughout the film, from Rockwell's perfect drunken falls to Paul Chahidi's Buster Keaton-inspired stunts, but the writing gets equal laughs from Ronan's perfectly placed puns to the self-aware satire that never comes off as cocky.
Each actor is perfectly cast, and each role is skilfully executed, exuding all the fussy glamour of the 1950s and striking a delicate balance between slapstick humour and British-reservedness. It's almost impossible to pick a stand out in this cast of greats, and there isn't a weak link nor moment.
David Oyelowo shines as screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris, with his genre-appropriate-over-exaggerated eyes and effect, Brody does a charming turn as the cad Köpernick and Harris Dickinson (The King's Man) does his best luvvy as Dickie Attenborough (yes, that Dickie Attenborough).
The list, quite literally, goes on: Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials), Sian Clifford (Fleabag), Reece Shearsmith (Inside No 9), Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter), Charlie Cooper (This Country), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Gangs of London), Paul Chahidi (This Country), Lucian Msamati (Gangs of London) and Tim Key (Death in Paradise), among others.
In order not to spoil anything – because this film is best viewed unspoiled, and then again and again – we daren't hint towards if the murdered is eventually caught out, and how that might happen.
In the end, that isn't the most important part of the movie, anyway: See How They Run is proof that as a perfect whodunnit, the journey is just as entertaining as the destination.
See How They Run is available to watch now on Disney+.
Best Entertainment and Tech Deals
