See How They Run (2022)
“It’s always the most unlikeable character that gets bumped off”
I was midway through this cinematic debut from director Tom George when, unravelling myself from a duvet to ward off the first real signs of a coming English winter, I did what all right minded thinking English gentleman should do in these circumstances. I made myself a fresh and piping hot cup of tea and marvelled on my highly popular Twitter channel how promising See How They Run was at the halfway point and how wonderful Sam Rockwell’s central performance was. I opined that I missed Philip Seymour Hoffman and how his friend Sam had filled the “character actor par excellence” chasm left by Hoffman’s early departure from our earthly plane and how he’d have had a ball acting in this film! Thinking of the great man led me back to Sam Rockwell but the chaos surrounding him at every turn wasn’t just reminiscent of the Coen Brothers at their epic Fargo best, no, it was to Adrien Brody I turned and then to the captivating presence of the otherworldly beauty that is Saoirse Ronan and with the sweeping camera shots capturing the film industry of early 1950’s London amid an Agatha Christie inspired murder whodunit, a play within a play if you will, it was to the slapstick and awkward comedy of Wes Anderson that I finally turned and particularly his envisioning of The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014.
Where Anderson’s inspired hotel was picture book in its feel and twisted through the dirty and dank Coen Brothers lens of their particular hotel in 1991’s Barton Fink, Tom George, aided and abetted by the music of Daniel Pemberton, the production design of Amanda McArthur and the beautiful period costume designs of Odile Dicks-Mireaux, has created a cliched love letter to the bustling film and theatre industry of 1950s London. Whilst I had the constant feeling of another possible inspiration and a genre crossover from the gaming platform of Sony’s PlayStation and their fantastically atmospheric and intriguing game LA Noire, rather than the usual peek beneath the dubious veneer of American Hollywood, here we have the opulence, class and the spectacle of opportunity that is a thriving London and theatre district celebrating the 100th showing of Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap” and of course an in-house on set murder, whilst a serial killer is also on the loose at the infamous Rillington Place in nearby Notting Hill.
All you really need to know is that there’s been a murder, a serial killer is on the loose and with all available police officers chasing the ghost of Notting Hill an inspector and a constable are on the case, everyone is a suspect and, perhaps, everyone is also a possible victim. Investigating said murder is Sam Rockwell, forever sneezing or coughing and aping a kind of foppish English gentleman post World War II and an English Inspector Clouseau from Pink Panther fame. Alongside and quickly eclipsing even Rockwell’s brilliant performance is a magnificent turn and true headline star performance from Saoirse Ronan as a beautifully innocent Police Constable (“Thank You Constable” is an oft refrain and often hilariously so) a blabbermouth and innocently over eager, a meticulous note taker, problem solver and with seemingly no filter whatsoever, always talking. Talking. Taking notes. Linking clues. Making accusations. Jumping to conclusions. And always talking, talking, talking.
Saoirse Ronan is fantastic and your star of the show.
Adrien Brody is magnificent as a drunken film director living high on life, Reece Shearsmith was almost unrecognisable as a wealthy film producer and David Oyelowo is magnificent as a verbose story telling film screenwriter. Added to the theatrical mix are further real life character roles including Agatha Christie and Richard Attenborough and as “it’s always the most unlikeable character that gets bumped off”, the obvious question is whodunit? Perhaps the beauty is that all of our main characters, except the one inhabited by Saoirse Ronan, are all mildly detestable, equal parts amusing and occasionally very funny and each could lay claim to be the most unlikeable character of them all.
I just saw a lot of the films of Wes Anderson here and that’s a mighty high compliment in my little black film book. There wasn’t the consistent comedy of Anderson’s 1998 epic Rushmore and there wasn’t the loving charm of Moonrise Kingdom 14 years later, but there’s the absurdist and awkward comedy twisted through the prism of constant narrative overhead shots, on screen titles and sharp turning cuts between scenes at off kilter angles. There’s a distinct dialogue all of it’s own (as with the “Thank you Constable” above) and the screenplay written by Mark Chappell has a lilt and a pace and a rhythm that once you settle into it you wait expectantly for the next laugh, gaff or absurd narrative juxtaposition.
I haven’t read any reviews since watching this morning and nor will I do so. I may be way off beam but I saw a lot of influence (the charm of Kenneth Branagh’s recent Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express or the Rian Johnson directed Knives Out in 2019 for example) as well as the numerous nods to the magnificent films of Wes Anderson and even for a miserable misanthrope such as me, I blooming loved it!
“See How They Run” can also be found within my 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” on Amazon with each and every volume free to read should you have a Kindle “Unlimited” package. All 9 of my self-published books can also be read for free on Kindle (but go on, treat yourself to a paperback or hardback version!) and should you watch my short Youtube video linked in the middle of this article you’ll also find links to my Patreon and Buy Me A Coffee and other ways of supporting my work as an independent writer.
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection VOL.1" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.