Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, Harris Dickinson, Pearl Chanda, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith, Charlie Cooper, Tim Key, Sian Clifford, Angus Wright, Shirley Henderson, Lucien Msamati, Paul Chahidi, Kieran Hodgson, Gregory Cox, Maggie McCarthy, Olver Jackson, Tomi Ogbaro, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Ania Marson, Philip Desmeules, Laura Morgan, Pippa-Bennett-Warner, Tolu Ogunmefun.
Many writers have committed murder, at least on paper! Hours, days, even months and years bent over their favourite implement, the weapon of choice in which to plot and conceive the perfect way to kill off the annoying voice of their victim, the faultless, and impeccable way in which they can, by conceit, be the ones to get truly away with pointing the finger at someone else, framing them for eternity, whilst all the time taking the credit for their demise. Murder, they may have written, but it is they who have also picked up the dagger shaped pen and thrust into the mind of the reader with pride and satisfaction.
The Queen of crime has few equals, but she can herself be given a lesson in the art of parody, of loving comedic satire dressed in the clothing of brilliance, carrying the weapon of insight; and in Mark Chappell’s superbly written See How They Run, the queen is shown not to be dead, but still hugely relevant in the 21st Century, still the respected icon and inspiration that she has been since the first flourished days in which she stepped out from behind the poisons cabinet and was to be revealed as the talented writer she was always going to be.
Directed by Tom George, Mark Chappell’s sense of timing in the film is shown as a script of sheer beauty and magnificent conceit is placed before the viewer with satisfaction.
See How They Run is a riddle wrapped in an enigma,rolled in entertaining fun, and revealed as a meta performance which captures the imagination, and to which the armchair detective cannot but help hold themselves in their obvious glee at the references and easily digested easter eggs that come along with dialogue and cinematic passages that give the film its extra loveable kick.
Set against the 100th theatrical performance of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, murder soon rears its ugly head as the unpleasant and socially odious film director Leo Kopernic, played by Adrien Brody, is killed and his body left on the stage for all the cast to see. It is into this what if moment world that history and imagination collide, and it is in the conceit that the players of the day, Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Agatha Christie, John Woolf, and Commissioner Harold Scott share equal billing with the heroes of the piece, the world-weary detective, Inspector Stoppard, played by the impressive Sam Rockwell, and the comedic drama finesse of Saoirse Ronan in the role of Constable Stalker.
Murder is the last desperate act of the cowardly and often fearful heart, and to carry off such a fine film takes an all-round effort of pride, with a stunning cast carrying off the vision of the director and writer, it is a film that in many ways outshines the queen of crime herself. See How They Run is a pleasure of cinema, compelling, witty, engaging, undaunted by the association of history from Shakespeare through to Christie. Absolutely the first name in executing the craft.
Ian D. Hall