The whodunit comedy “See How They Run” is about backstage in a Fifties London manufacturing of the long-running Agatha Christie play “The Mousetrap.” With a sprightly wit and an all-star forged to convey it to life, the film manages to be a loving parody of theater gossips, postwar London and Christie’s homicide mysteries .
The story is an investigation of the homicide of a Hollywood movie director, Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody). Leo had been employed to adapt the play, and he was killed in chilly blood on the theater, making all of the present’s gamers potential suspects and, they worry, potential future victims. There’s the disgruntled screenwriter, Mervyn (David Oyelowo), the delicate actor Dickie (Harris Dickinson), and the hard-nosed theater proprietor (Ruth Wilson). Every has their motives, and an odd couple of detectives are assigned to untangle them. Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) is a jaded veteran, and his apprentice is a movie-loving rookie, Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan).
As a parody, the movie is fast to indicate its appreciation for the genres being spoofed. One charming gag finds Stalker pausing her legal evaluation to reward the virtues of performers who’re tangentially talked about in the midst of the investigation. “Rex Harrison, great actor,” she reverently intones.
It’s an endearing bit as a result of the identical compliments might be handed alongside to this movie’s adorned forged. The director Tom George provides his performers permission to method their roles with cake-eating aplomb, and he enhances their enthusiasm with campy course, winking on the viewers by way of title playing cards, break up screens and paisleyed manufacturing design. The result’s a plummy affair, a correct figgy pudding baked out of once-stale Scotland Yard tropes.
See How They Run
Rated PG-13 for transient violence. Working time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters.