Directed by: Tom George
Distributed by: Searchlight Pictures
Written by Taylor Baker
25/100
“See How They Run” in its limited marketing campaign has been compared to the films of Wes Anderson, a comparison that seems easy to make. Players like Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, and Sam Rockwell are significant characters, the early portion of the film in particular is technically reminiscent in its precision to much of the stylings of Anderson. But the characters flounder about a bit too excessively, the ends those characters meet are unsatisfying, and the winking of the screenplay letting us know it knows that we know what its contrivances are quickly descends from a cutesie tone of twee to clunky self-indulgence.
Much of the staging is well done, and Adrien Brody’s Leo Kopernick propels the narrative in his limited span at the beginning of the film. But dread and intrigue two significant hallmarks of the whodunnit genre never actually make it into the film. Despite the flailing of the extensive cast the stakes and significance of events fail to transfer from the screen to the viewer. Tom George showed a commendable level of control in his debut, but Chappell’s screenplay is so disheveled that no amount of sincerity from Ronan or lovable schmuck shtick from Rockwell can level it out. “See How They Run” is another example that putting a hat on a hat rarely pays off.
“See How They Run” Trailer
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