Delayed Reaction: See How They Run

Premise: There's a murder on the set of a murder mystery play.

Did you know that The Mouse Trap is the longest continuously running play of all time? That's the subtext of this entire movie. I don't know much else about the play, but I really needed to know that. And it plays into a lot of it.

 

I appreciate the idea of See How They Run. They assemble a great cast, in particular letting Sam Rockwell be drunk and annoyed and letting Saoirse Ronan be silly and earnest in a way she doesn't get to do enough. The meta nature of the story invites cleverness and wit. And it knows that it's a comedy first, mystery second.

 

It just...doesn't add up to much. I don't know how else I can say it. I have no ill-will toward the movie. It's just, sort of there. Nothing about it stands out. I'll sometimes talk about how if a movie does everything at a B- level, the cumulative competence where nothing in it is truly weak can push it to an A overall. See How They Run is the opposite. Every part is a C average. Nothing wrong with that. But watching something where nothing stands out pushed the experience altogether down to a C- simply by blending in too much.

 

I can already tell it's going to be one of those movies a decade from now, I'll think about it and decide to rewatch because the cast is good and I don't carry any strong negative feeling about it. I'll convince myself that maybe I just didn't give it a fair shake or missed some of the humor that my wiser, older self will now get. I'll watch it, then come away with the same empty-calorie response.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend