SEE HOW THEY RUN

Everyone loves a good old-fashioned whodunit, don't they? The twists and turns of a murder mystery keeping the audience well and truly on their toes throughout and having some claim they knew who the killer was all along. In recent years, films like Knives Out and television shows like Only Murders in the Building have brought a new sense of popularity to the genre. See How They Run takes the audience back to the 1950s West End of London for a proper old-fashioned whodunit within a whodunit.

In 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When a world-weary inspector (Sam Rockwell) and an eager rookie constable (Saoirse Ronan) take on the case, they find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid world of underground theatre, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

See How They Run is a sheer delight of a whodunit from Tom George, the classic feel to proceedings playing a big part in making it such a joyous cinematic experience. It's mightily impressive too considering this is George's feature film debut, the influence of someone like Wes Anderson clear to see as he utilises some neat and intricate cinematography from Jamie D. Ramsay, and implements sharp editing from Gary Dollner and Peter Lambert to make the film flow so meticulously. Coming in at just over ninety-minutes, this is a film that makes excellent use of every minute possible, meaning it absolutely flies by.

Mark Chappell's writing is something to be lauded too, quick-witted and clever as characters take digs at each other and try to outwit the killer in an intriguing game of cat and mouse. There's a few moments throughout that work so well because of the writing, including a quite brilliant line about Eton that got the reaction it deserved at my screening. The characters are exaggerated to an extent, bordering on caricatures in some cases yet it doesn't hinder the film at all, instead adding more reasons to sit back and enjoy it all. 

What's a whodunit without an all-star ensemble cast at hand to perform it? In the case of See How They Run, that cast fire on all cylinders to make this a rip-roaring success, whether they play the stupid type or the uptight kind. Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan lead the cast superbly, their Inspector and Constable bouncing off each other with some perfect comedic timing, Ronan in particular having the time of her life and Rockwell sounding like Captain Jack Sparrow at times. It's hard to choose a favourite amongst the rest of the cast but Harris Dickinson's Richard Attenborough takes some beating, his voice a major reason his performance really works.

With See How They Run and Bodies Bodies Bodies both delivering vastly different yet entertaining murder mysteries recently, the whodunit is alive and well in this modern age. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery has a lot to live up to if it wants to dethrone See How They Run as the best one of the year mind.

Verdict: ★★★★½