See How They Run

 See How They Run is a fictional, jokey whodunnit built around the real West End theatrical run of Agatha Christie's Mousetrap back in the fifties.

 It's a very cute and pretty funny movie that falls flat in some respects (especially in its central mystery, and its attempts to either bring anything new or deconstruct the genre) but is saved by a game cast, a lot of mild but good gags, and a snappy pace.

 Detective Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and police constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are assigned to investigate the backstage murder of Hollywood director Leo Kopernick (Adrian Brody) during the celebration of the play's 100th performance. It quickly becomes clear that everyone wanted a piece of him, and they're soon awash in red herrings and complex motivations.

 The truth when it comes out of nowhere and is sure to disappoint anyone who was expecting a well-crafted mystery, but the modest joys in this movie are more related to the characters and their interactions. Detective Stoppard is experienced, easy-going, world-weary and often drunk, while PC Stalker is a young and bushy-tailed, diligent, highly excitable and will often just blurt out whatever comes to mind. Their dynamic together is a delight and scores some big laughs from tiny details like the way they greet each other by their titles. And as a bonus both get a bit of depth added to their characters, while everyone else is basically a caricature.

 I love Saoirse Ronan's work here. Like Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky, she takes a potentially annoying character and makes it impossible to hate.

<3 P. C. Stalker

 Where the movie is less successful is in trying to get clever with structure and conventions. "What, Flashbacks?" says the fictional playwright who's been tasked with creating the script for a movie adaptation of Mousetrap, after the movie has indulged in a ton of flashbacks. "Next you'll ask to include a  title card that says 'Three weeks later...'" And of course, immediate cut to a title card that says "Three weeks later..."

 This, and some other stuff like this is... cute, and kind of clever, but not nearly as much as it thinks it is. Not as executed, anyways.

 Also, this is not much of a complaint but if there's any reason for there being a very obvious reference to The Shining here I completely missed it.

 Agatha Christie buffs might be more satisfied by the film as there are a few decent in-jokes in there. The best of which is a real-life factoid that comes up in the movie as one of the possible motives: The reason there's never been a movie adaptation of Mousetrap is that there was a provision made in the contract when the rights were sold to British producer John Woolf (who's one of the suspects here, played by Reece Shearsmith) stating that the movie could not be made while the play was still running. And... well, it still is. It went on hiatus for COVID, but it's back on now.

 Lines and scenes from Mousetrap also have some significance, as well as its origins in a true case. 

 Even if it doesn't work that well, it still moves at a quick pace, looks pretty good and again, the acting and character humor is a huge amount of fun. It won't set the world on fire or anything, but there are way worse ways to spend one hundred minutes.