Rian Johnson’s film “Knives” became a hugely successful hit, and quite unexpectedly. It repaid its budget almost eight times and received an ocean of praise from various critics and audiences. Therefore, it is not surprising that the cinema set a relatively small but sure trend for detectives of the new wave. “How they run” refers to the latter. We tell you in the review below how well the film manages to entertain and intrigue.
“See How They Run” / See How They Ru
Comedy detective genre
Directed by Tom George
Starring Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody
Premiere cinemas
Release year 2022
IMDb site
The plot starts with the desire of the director Leo Copernicus (Adrien Brody) to film an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s detective play “The Mousetrap”. At the same time, it is difficult to call Leo himself a decent person, so he manages to get into several conflicts in London in a drunken state. The situation escalates when it turns out that someone killed Leo. All employees of the local theater come under suspicion. Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Sierra Ronan) take up the investigation of the murder.
“How They Run” is a film jointly produced by the United States and Great Britain, which could have a positive effect on the general atmosphere of the work. Unfortunately, the picture took only external stylistic features from Britain, which may look beautiful, but do not carry a special semantic load. Otherwise, the authors produced an exclusively “American” film, and not in the best sense of this expression.
As a detective, “How They Run” does not impress with particular ingenuity, but at the same time, it does not fall into completely frank nonsense. He skillfully keeps the intrigue and carefully throws in new clues, so you can’t call him too simple. Rather, the authors tried very hard to adhere to the standards of detective storylines. Fans of the classics of the genre will appreciate it, but other viewers may find what is happening a bit stale and boring.
Meta-elements had to dilute the detective canons, because Agatha Christie’s detective play plays its role in the script for a reason. Only here it turns out to be an additional decoration of local history and a small bow to the classics. It was not possible to somehow seriously influence the detective essence of the plot and look at it from a non-standard angle, as the story “Bare Knives” did.
At the same time, there are enough humorous moments in the movie, from which the “American roots” also stick out. The local comedy lacks ingenuity and wit, which is especially strange in the local sophisticated British settings. However, this does not mean that the film is not funny. He is able to lift his spirits, he does not fall into any unnecessary cringe.
The acting is also pleasing. The acting tandem of Rockwell and Ronan is always a pleasure to watch, and Brody, even in a relatively short time on screen, once again perfectly proves why the whole world considers him an outstanding actor. Even the characters of third importance in “How They Run” look interesting. And this is critically important for a detective.
At the same time, the film was shot without the use of any unusual directorial means. It does not feel chamber (although it could, given the essence of what is happening), does not stand out with interesting plans and scenes. On the other hand, from a technical point of view, there are no special complaints about it.
Perhaps, “there are no special complaints” can be said about the entire film in general. He does not invent anything new, reminding hundreds of other movie detectives. At the same time, he focuses only on the most worthy works, trying to reproduce them almost frame by frame, while at the same time diluting the original plot as a whole. But “How They Run” does not bring all the unique moments to a decent level, and sometimes completely ignores them.
Pros: good performance of the cast, well-executed detective component, stylish visual component Cons: sagging meta-elements, on which a separate emphasis is made, lack of truly unusual, intriguing moments, the general freshness of the whole thing Conclusion:
“How they run” resembles a simple tabloid detective story. It’s a good movie that would have looked perfect somewhere in the 90s. But in 2022, it was hopelessly late – and there is nothing you can do about it
