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Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery play The Mousetrap has run continuously in London’s West End since 1952, bar a break due to theatre closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, this longevity has prevented a film version from ever being made, as Christie herself insisted on this only happening at least six months after The Mousetrap’s absence from the West End stage.
See How They Run circumvents this contractual restriction by telling a comedic, fictionalised story of a murder mystery linked to the murder mystery. In the 1950s, Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case after film director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) is murdered at a London theatre staging The Mousetrap, which he had been set to adapt for the big screen.
Stoppard and Stalker interview various suspects — among them screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo), theatre owner Petula Spencer (an underused Ruth Wilson) and film producer John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith). Woolf is one of several real-life ‘50s figures depicted, including Richard
Attenborough (Harris Dickinson)
and his wife Sheila Sim (Pearl
Chanda), who were both in the
original Mousetrap production.
However, while the abundant geeky references to aspects of Christie lore suggest that See How
They Run is aimed
at people with an encyclopaedic
knowledge of
whodunnits,
these
same people are likely to see many of the story
beats coming a mile off. These include the
revelation of the killer’s identity, despite the script
running up to this moment by industriously throwing in one red
herring after another.
Ultimately, See How They Run is more interested in poking fun at
clichés of the murder-mystery genre than springing too many surprises with how the
murder plot at the centre of the film’s own story is unravelled. The problem here is that many of the barbs just aren’t particularly witty — such as when Cocker-Norris bemoans the narrative device of flashbacks only for one to then abruptly appear.
Where a lot of the film’s humour does come from is the chemistry between Stoppard and Stalker, with the former portrayed as insightful but world-weary and the latter as enthusiastic but naive. It’s a dynamic that might remind you of ‘90s animated TV favourites Pinky and the Brain, or grumpy geriatric Carl Fredriksen and excitable eight-year-old “Wilderness Explorer” Russell in the 2009 Pixar classic Up.
Ronan also gets a chance at some great physical comedy, such as when Stalker rams open the door of a suspect’s room only to be told straight away that a key to it had been left under a mat outside. Meanwhile, Tim Key is good value as the two sleuths’ superior, Commissioner Harrold Scott.
The amusing exchanges between See How They Run’s two leads largely make up for the ham-fisted attempts at
TV Burp-style satire — so much so that it wouldn’t be too surprising to see
Stoppard and Stalker turn up in further comedic detective
adventures perhaps moving beyond the world
of Agatha Christie.
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FILM REVIEW