Review of See How They Run (2022) by Hnestlyonthesly — 10 Jan 2023

See How They Run is seamlessly funny. The plot does not overstay its welcome. The script is fully in control of its own camp. The ensemble shares the spotlight effortlessly. Detective jokes abound. Much fun is had without letting any spinning plates fall or threads left loose. It is, in a word, a light comedy, a whodunit with absolutely no ambitions beyond silly skulduggery, and that is precisely why it is approximately $28 million in the hole with no end in sight. A box office disaster, which in its seventh weekend in theaters has failed to recoup the generous mid-size budget an indie ensemble cast demands.

See How They Run was Wife’s first movie out on her own in more than a year. I relied on her to let me know if it was worth seeing in theaters. Everything about the trailer screams Wife: an Agatha Christie play, crisp editing, Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, David Oyelowo and Adrian Brody, nothing more need be said. Wife came home resolved that she wanted to see more movies together but also claiming the second act couldn’t live up to the charm and energy of the first act. No harm, no foul. I went on with my life until earlier this week. Friend mentioned he was compiling a list of movies worth seeing in the past ten years, sent it my way. I spent my roommate’s two hour nap and change working on my own list and we compared notes. I realized I really was missing out by not seeing the most recent Bond movie and wishing I had caught up on a few more movies from 2022. When I turned it on last night, I was bowled over. Harris Dickinson, the star of Triangle of Sadness no less(!), was a dazzling Richard Attenborough. Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan are electric as a comic duo. The casual sexist zingers are self-referentially satirical and the latent homoeroticism is just perfect for a budding Joseph Hansen fan like myself.

See How They Run does not concern itself with being relevant or commenting on Important Things. It’s a film that’s interested in commenting on genre, in ways that often more successful than less artful pictures like Isn’t It Romantic, possibly because of the room for cross cultural commentary, but also because of its attempt to posit other forces at work in poor adaptations, like the role of commercial interests in film adaptation and the juicy discussion of the pressures of injecting violence into the script. I deem this movie entirely watchable and palatable for the whole family, while also being quick and witty for any detective novel fans to catch the sly jokes that go over everyone else’s heads. In ten years this will not be the movie you regret seeing in 2022.