Respond to these rapid questions in our See How They Run quiz and we will tell you which See How They Run character you are. Play it now.
Your appreciation for the film “See How They Runtwo “‘s most noticeable components will determine how much you love it. The first is the genre of the traditional British murder mystery and the individuals who were involved in its creation, parody, and meta-commentary. The second is the meta-commentary subgenre itself. In practically every scene, there are winks and air quotes directed at the viewer. Since I’m okay with both, and the film is really stylishly made and has an amazing cast, I thought it was hilarious. However, people who are unfamiliar with Agatha Christie’s works and the darkly humorous British Kitchen Sink era replies to her mysteries can believe it to be so pretentious that it hurts their fillings. Simply said, you’ll enjoy “See How They Run” if you are familiar with The Mousetrap and especially if you have seen it played. Maybe not if you don’t know the name “The Real Inspector Hound” or if you react badly to air quotes. You have been forewarned.
Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap, which debuted in 1952 in London’s West End and has since had almost 28,000 performances, holds the record for the longest-running play in history. When an American film director named Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) arrives as a producer and is negotiating the film rights to the play, “See How They Run”—the title of which is also connected to literary mice through the nursery rhyme—takes place in 1953 London around the celebration of the 100th performance of The Mousetrap.
Although Köpernick, a momentarily unnamed off-stage narrator, has not seen The Mousetrap, he is confident that it is a “second quality murder mystery.” He claims that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Each one starts off with “an endless prologue in which the main characters are introduced.” The least likeable character is then removed, giving you a better understanding of the world they live in. The “world-weary investigator” will now enter the scene. He will prowl around, speak to witnesses, veer off in a few directions, then round up all the suspects and point to the one who seems least likely. In order to avoid being blacklisted in Hollywood, Köpernick is in London. He claims that he was hired to make the movie just a little bit more interesting than the play.
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The first murder victim in a classic British mystery either has no enemies or is despised by everyone. And Köpernick falls into the second group. Backstage, he is slain, and right on schedule, the hard-drinking, jaded detective shows up. He is a WWII veteran with a limp. Like other names in the movie, Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) is a meta-reference. Early work by Oscar-winning author Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound, is about a theatrical murder mystery and the characters involved. He was a true hound, Inspector!, a character exclaims at one point, just to make sure we understand. Other characters are named after Julian Fellowes of “Downton Abbey,” who beautifully modernised the traditional British big house murder mystery in “Gosford Park,” and Richard Attenborough, who was in the original cast of Mousetrap and played the perpetrator in one of the other movies mentioned.
See How They Run Quiz
The screenplay is best characterized as “too smart by half,” in keeping with the movie’s mid-century setting. The plot culminates when everyone finds themselves in Agatha Christie’s house (for casual and non-fans, note that her real-life second husband, Max Mallowan, is played by Lucian Msamati), however the only real-life connections are the names and Dame Agatha’s fascination with poisons.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this See How They Run quiz.
When it isn’t distracting us with pointless flashbacks and knee-slappers like labeling a potential murder “manufactured” because it is really on a stage, everything moves quickly. Saoirse Ronan, as always, is pure joy in the role of the eager young Constable Stalker (those names! ), and the ensemble is clearly having fun with the clichés and archetypes of the genre. The acting and production qualities are enjoyable for fans of British mysteries. Both the serial murderer movie “10 Rillington Place” and, less successfully, a horrifying real-life murder that may have served as The Mousetrap’s inspiration are mentioned. If you find that all of this is too much work, you should definitely stick with the original or watch better meta-mysteries like “Knives Out,” its planned sequel “Glass Onion,” and the hysterically amusing stage performance The Play that Goes Wrong.
About the quiz
All the style and zeal in the world, however, cannot hide the fact that the mystery itself falls well short of those created by Dame Agatha. But no one has ever surpassed her either.
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