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There is a legal specification that no film of The Mousetrap, the play that (Covid break apart) has been now running continuously for over seventy years, be allowed to go into production until six months after the it closes in the theatre.

This is just one of many true facts about Agatha Christie’s famous whodunnit that is referenced in this movie, which due to the above clause may be the closest thing we have to screen version of the story. (In English at least, there are actually loose movie adaptations in Russian and Indian.)

Looked at like this though, as the title suggests, See How They Run is probably more of a sequel to the play, the original title of which was Three Blind Mice (these being the second and first line of the famous nursery rhyme). If it is a sequel though it is one of those, like The Force Awakens and Top Gun: Maverick, that revisits many many elements of the first part it follows. The set up here is that there has been a murder on the evening of the play’s one hundredth performance but the events of real life heavily reflect those of the fiction that these people are involved in putting on every night.

It is clear that a straight version of this plot, indeed any straight version of The Mousetrap, would not work. Serious as some of its content is, over time the play has become synonymous with cliche and corniness. (When it first premiered it actually defied established genre cliches but that was a long time ago.) What we have then is a comedic, very meta caper where an all star cast play different characters each with a strong connection to the show; the producer, the theatre owner, the director, the actors, who have to contend with the investigation lead by a seasoned but disenchanted detective and his eager constable.

The cast are all strong and are clearly having fun, a sense of which successfully transfers to the audience. Harris Dickinson and David Oyelowo both go quite large but Sian Clifford, Reece Shearsmith, Charlie Cooper and Pearl Chanda’s slightly straighter performances prop this up. If anyone is wasted it is Ruth Wilson who doesn’t really get a chance to shine in the ensemble. The stars here are undoubtedly the two coppers though.

Sam Rockwell is typically engaging although I’m not sure why he is pretty much the only US actor in a very English troupe. Adrian Brody appears too but he is actually playing an American. I thought we might have got past the need to put a Hollywood star in a demonstrably British film à la Sliding Doors, Four Weddings & a Funeral and Paddington, but apparently not. There are any number of UK character actors that could have played the detective so that the wandering accent would not have been an issue. It is interesting to see an actor who usually brings such energy to his roles playing things very differently though.

The energy here comes from the person next to him, who effortlessly steals the whole film. Saoirse Ronan has not done really done funny before. She is proper quirky in a couple of Wes Anderson films and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird showed off her perfect comedy timing, but this shows her to be a brilliant and effortless comedic performer. Her Constable Stalker is also the heart and the spirit of the film. She and Rockwell play wonderfully off one another.

See How They Run may be riding a new wave of whodunnit movies but sits among the Poirots and the Benoit Blancs nicely. It may not live long in your memory but it will give you a very entertaining night at the cinema. Run to see it.

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The Ripley Factor:

There is no narrative reason for Constable Stalker to be a woman but there is also absolutely no reason for her not to be. Once all the dots are connected the film has made its own comment on how the young assistant police officer would traditionally be a man in this type of story, and as such one of its more subtle references to the tropes of the medium proves to be its most important. Ronan’s Stalker is flawed but admirable and definitely drives the plot, if not always in the right direction.

There are some elements of her having to fight sexism in her 1950s workplace but this isn’t overplayed either. All in all, including a WPC taking the job to make ends meet after the war and who then proves to be an indispensable member of the force is a killer decision.