See How They Run (2022 film)

See How They Runis a 2022comedymystery filmdirected byTom George, written byMark Chappelland produced byDamian Jonesand Gina Carter. The film starsSam Rockwell,Saoirse Ronan,Adrien Brody,Ruth Wilson,Reece Shearsmith,Harris Dickinson, andDavid Oyelowo.
See How They Runwas theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 9 September 2022 and in North America on 16 September 2022, bySearchlight Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $22 million worldwide. It was nominated forOutstanding British Filmat the76th British Academy Film Awards, among other accolades.
In 1953 London,Agatha Christie's playThe Mousetrapcelebrates its 100th performance, and sleazy American director Leo Köpernick has been hired by producerJohn Woolfto direct a film adaptation. After his drunken behaviour towards the female leadSheila Simleads to a fistfight with her husband and co-starRichard Attenborough, Köpernick is killed backstage by an unseen assailant.
Inspector George Stoppard investigates the murder, shadowed by the inexperienced Constable Stalker. Everyone at the theatre is declared a suspect and a potential victim, including the play's producer Petula Spencer and Woolf's wifeEdana Romney. Stoppard attempts to close the theatre until the murder is solved, but theMetropolitan Police Commissioner,Harold Scott, intervenes, assigning Stalker to assist in the investigation.
Stoppard and Stalker search Köpernick's room at theSavoy Hotel, finding his address book of women's details. The hotel manager recalls Köpernick's violent argument with screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris, who admits to arguing with Köpernick over the director's vision for an action-packed ending forThe Mousetrapfilm. Mervyn, who lives with his hot-headed "nephew" Gio, remembers a "plain woman" arriving at the hotel with Köpernick's son.
Stoppard and Stalker question Woolf who was blackmailed by Köpernick after he discovered Woolf's affair with his assistant, Ann. Dennis, an usher at the theatre, offers an unhelpful description of a suspicious figure; Attenborough and Sim are questioned as well. Spencer explains that she optionedThe Mousetrap's film rights to Woolf, but he would be contractually unable to produce the adaptation until the show had closed.
At a pub, Stoppard bonds with Stalker and reveals that his unfaithful wife left him after having a child with another man. Driving a drunken Stoppard home, Stalker finds news articles and a picture of his ex-wife, fitting Mervyn's description of a "homely woman with glasses". Combined with Dennis's description, this leads Stalker to suspect Stoppard may be the killer, and she searches for his ex-wife in Köpernick's address book.
Stoppard and Stalker attend a performance ofThe Mousetrap, during which Mervyn, Woolf, Dennis, Gio, and Stoppard leave the auditorium; Stalker soon follows after watching Stoppard retrieve his gloves. In the foyer, Mervyn is strangled to death by a gloved figure. Stalker spots Stoppard kneeling over the body and gives chase, knocking him unconscious with a snow shovel.
Stoppard awakens in a cell, and Stalker and Scott accuse him of carrying out the murders. Stalker has summoned Joyce, the mother of Köpernick's son, but she is not Stoppard's ex-wife, exonerating him. Stalker escorts Joyce and her son home, and Joyce mentions overhearing a man with a "village idiot" accent. Reading through Mervyn's research onThe Mousetrap, Stoppard realises the identity of the killer and races to the suspect's apartment, where Stalker has already burst inside and found the necessary evidence: the killer is Dennis.
Attenborough, Sim, Woolf, Ann, Spencer, and her elderly mother arrive at the home of Agatha Christie inWallingford, Berkshire, having received invitations to dinner. The butler Fellowes is perplexed by their arrival, but Christie's husband,Max Mallowan, allows them inside. The group is held at gunpoint by Dennis, whom Spencer's mother recognises as Dennis Corrigan, an abused child whosebrother's deathinspired the plot ofThe Mousetrap. Dennis explains that he killed Köpernick and Mervyn in an attempt to stop the play and its adaptation, disgusted by the exploitation of his brother's tragedy for entertainment.
Having forged the invitations to lure everyone together, Dennis has captured Edana, mistaking her for Christie. Christie enters with tea, including a poisoned cup for Dennis which Fellowes inadvertently drinks instead. An armed Stoppard arrives and a shootout ensues; Sim distracts Dennis with amolotov cocktail, and Stalker nearly takes a bullet to save Stoppard, matching Köpernick's story pitch, before Agatha dispatches Dennis with a shovel. It is revealed that the bullet did, in fact, hit Stoppard, though the shot was not fatal. Sometime later, Stalker passes her sergeant's exams and a recovering Stoppard receives theKing's Police and Fire Services Medal, and they attend another performance ofThe Mousetraptogether. At the very end of the film, Stoppard turns to the camera and asks the audience to keep the identity of the killer a secret, as happens at the end of the actual playThe Mousetrap.
The film was announced in November 2020 as an untitled mystery film fromSearchlight Pictures, with Tom George on board to direct from a screenplay byMark Chappell.Filming wrapped by April 2021.The title was revealed to beSee How They Runin July 2021.
See How They Runwas released theatrically in the UK on 9 September 2022,and in the US on 16 September. The film was originally set for a 30 September release in the US, but was brought forward by two weeks due to "the lack of major studio product" late in the year.
The film was released forvideo on demandplatforms on 1 November 2022.
See How They Rungrossed $9.6million in the United States and Canada, and $12.4million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $22million.The film received awide releasedomestically, debuting at $3.1 million from 2,404 cinemas, finishing fourth at the box office for its first weekend; it held at fifth the following weekend, and fell out of the Top 10 at the box office in its third week.
According to the streaming aggregatorJustWatch,See How They Runwas the 8th most streamed film across all platforms in the United States during the week of 31 October to 6 November 2022,and the 10th during the week of 7 November to 13 November 2022.
On thereview aggregatorwebsiteRotten Tomatoes, 75% of 198 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "See How They Runmay not do itself many favors by asking for Christie comparisons, but this is still one fun whodunit."Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Teo Bugbee ofThe New York Timespraised the film calling it "a plummy affair, a proper figgy pudding baked out of once-stale Scotland Yard tropes."Nell Minow ofRogerEbert.comgave the film two and a half stars saying "all the stylishness and enthusiasm cannot disguise the fact that the mystery itself never comes close to those concocted by Dame Agatha."