Rating: 7.7
If you are looking for a fun, enjoyable whodunnit; this is the movie for you! Sure, it’s no “Knives Out” but it is a loving homage to the classic Agatha Christie stories, with strong influence from Wes Anderson’s filmmaking. It truly feels like what would happen if Wes Anderson made a movie like “Clue”. It isn’t completely Wes Anderson though, more “Wes Anderson-lite”. The film is indeed quirky and uses Anderson’s unique sensibilities with cinematography, editing, acting, and even tone, but it plays more like someone attempting to be like Anderson rather than Anderson himself. This made the film feel like it didn’t have its own voice, that it was just trying to be other things. But ultimately it worked for me, this was a good film! The only thing I didn’t like cinematography wise was the excessive use of split screen to show multiple perspectives. It was cool at first and then became overused and I did not really see a point to it. I also didn’t LOVE the soundtrack, it felt very canned and corny, but still fit the tone of the film in many ways. And don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad film by any means… just not overly memorable or remarkable.
“See How They Run” is extremely charming, delight fun and fun; it’s an entertaining throwback to old murder mysteries. Unfortunately, in a world where we have movies like “Knives Out” and the Kenneth Branagh adaptations of Agatha Christie mysteries, this didn’t feel like much. It's a good “mid” movie, it doesn’t reach the heights you want it to but it is good enough to not fault it. The story didn’t feel fully developed, it felt more like they had some cool ideas for a clever, meta whodunnit homage that they strung together… the mystery, while fun, is not overtly compelling, and the characters are pretty forgettable, aside from the detectives. Sam Rockwell, and especially Saoirse Ronan, were fantastic together. They lit up the screen with such witty performances, and their chemistry was fantastic; they played so well off of each other. They also delivered some pretty good laughs, and were easily my favourite part of the movie! I also did love how cleverly the film subverted expectations with the mystery and kept one guessing, as well as the cool meta moments and some great uses of Chekov’s gun (if they show something, it will pay off later)! While I also loved the Christie homage, I found it became too reliant on it and ultimately made me think of better stories. The film did not blow me away, but it was entertaining and fun! It is a good film, and I’d recommend it to fans of quirky whodunnits! The film is charming, but should have taken on something more to make it stand out... as they do say in the movie… “It’s a whodunnit… seen one, you’ve seen 'em all”.
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IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
RT Audience Score: 64%
Metacritic Score: 60
CinemaScore: B-
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Searchlight Pictures
Directed by Tom George
Written by Mark Chappell
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Harris Dickinson, Reece Shearsmith, David Oyelowo
Runtime: 1hr 38min
Rating: PG
Comedy, Mystery
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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.
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Fun Fact: Some of the character names are references to other plays, or to Agatha Christie herself. "Max Mallowan" was her second husband's name. "Inspector Stoppard" is a reference to Tom Stoppard, who wrote "The Real Inspector Hound", a play which had a murder mystery as a play-within-a-play. (One character says about the deceased, "He was a real hound, Inspector!") "Dickie Attenborough" is the name of Sir Richard Attenborough, the actor and director (who starred in the first West-End run of Christie's "The Mousetrap"), and "Sheila Sim" is the name of his wife.
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