Movie Breakdown: See How They Run

Pre-Screening Stance:

The re-emergence of the whodunit really pulled in one heck of a cast for See How They Run – Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, and others. Here’s hoping the film is worthy of all the famous faces.

Post-Screening Ramble:

See How They Run is a pretty harmless affair. The film, which exists somewhere between being an actual whodunit and a cheeky take on one, has a fairly standard murder mystery setup – a tired detective (Sam Rockwell) gets saddled with a young, enthusiastic partner (Saoirse Ronan) and together they have to catch the killer(s) responsible for the victim (Adrien Brody). As is to be expected with any whodunit, there’s a few twists and turns and whatnot, but weirdly, that’s not the part of the film that will keep you invested. It’s the cast, who all seem to be having a great time, with Ronan turning in a charming, funny, and standout performance as an inexperienced officer who has a tendency to “jump to conclusions.”  Director Tom George also does well to maintain a buoyant, lighthearted feel, and I can for sure tag his See How They Run as being an enjoyable watch. With that being said, there just isn’t a lot of meat on the bones here, and while the film skips along nicely, the murder mystery portion underwhelms and keeps the whole thing from being particularly clever or memorable.

You could do a lot worse than See How They Run, but definitely keep those expectations in check. The film opens this Friday, September 16.

One Last Thought:

Any discussion about movies these days usually features at least one person who loves to go on and on about how they’re all too long, so it’s kind of funny (to me, anyways) when something like See How They Run arrives and feels as though it should have been a good half hour or more longer.