By Jennifer Mustoe
Having just seen The Mousetrap in London‘s West End, I was thrilled to see an Agatha Christie-ish movie at my local movie theater, Stadium Cinemas in Payson, Utah. Little did I know that See How They Run was going to be about The Mousetrap, sort of, and I, having just seen the play would laugh out loud at all the asides and nods to the original play.
See How They Run is a murder mystery that has a drunken Inspector Stoppard played with almost heartbreaking (and funny) authenticity by Sam Rockwell. (Incidentally, I was actually in a Sam Rockwell movie (Don Verdean) as an extra and my experience with him is he’s a very nice chap. Rockwell nails the seen it all and is done with it all character, and we love him, wince when he fails, cheer when he succeeds Saoirse Ronan as Constable Stalker, Stoppard’s unwanted partner is as fresh and funny as can be. When she is on the screen, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She has perfected Stalker’s jumping to conclusions, assisting Stoppard with dignity and care, and quirky sense of humor and wonderful timing.
The Mousetrap is where this SHTR’s whodunnit takes place, so it was so enjoyable to see the set of the play in the movie. I got all the jokes, understood all the similarities, delighted in seeing See How They Run embrace the play, but with so much fun. Adrien Brody as Leo Köpernick, the creep who becomes the murder victim, is the narrator of the movie. Brody is slick and sly, and as in The Mousetrap, we love to hate this victim as much as we hate Mrs. Boyle in the play.
Where See How They Run is effective and interesting as it is loosely based on the case of Dennis O’Neill, a 12-year-old boy who was violently beaten to death by his foster father, Reginald Gough, in 1945. Both The Mousetrap and See How They Run weave in this storyline as part of their plot, but the movie leans far more heavily on the actual story. Though a gruesome plot point, the movie has quick and quirky wit and comebacks a-plenty. I plan on seeing it again to see if I can find any more Mousetrap nods.
My favorite part of the movie was the set in The Mousetrap keeps coming up in the movie. Every time I saw it, I smiled. The characters loosely mimicked some characters from the play, but obviously in a movie, many more scenes can be added, more locations, and in SHTR, more characters. All of it is simply delicious.
See How They Run, directed by Tom George, written by Mark Chappell, and produced by Damian Jones and Gina Carter, is a great romp that only got around 65% approval ratings, which I think is far too low. My guess is some of the humor and nostalgia of the movie isn’t grasped unless you’ve seen The Mousetrap. Spoiler alert to a spoiler alert. You will definitely know from the film who the murderer is in the play. If you haven’t seen the play and you can’t attend a live production, read the script before you see the movie. You will enjoy See How They Run far more, and you seriously want to get all you can out of this fun film.
See How They Run is distributed by Searchlight Pictures and can be seen in theaters near you.
You can find my review of my recent attendance to London‘s West End production of The Mousetrap here.
See How They Run Official Trailer
See How They Run‘s Saoirse Ronan short clip
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