The great success of ‘Daggers in the back’ has caused a greater interest in Hollywood towards mystery comedies and I am quite clear that if it were not for the Ryan Johnsonit is quite likely that ‘Look how they run’a film that arrives this Friday, October 21 at Spanish cinemas, would never have come into existence.
In return, one of the biggest problems with ‘Look how they run’ is precisely that ‘Daggers in the Back’ exists, since it isThis hilarious mystery comedy has many virtues, but in no case does it stand up to comparison with detective Benoit Blanc’s stupendous debut. Of course, it is true that they use similar ingredients, but then they play with them in a different way.
a great start
The first thing that distinguishes ‘Look at how they run’ from ‘Daggers in the back’ is its setting, since here the story takes place when Christie Agatha, the great referent of both films, was still alive and is fully situated in the world of English theater at the time. It also enters fully into the film industry of that time, not so much to blur the line between reality and fiction as for this to add an additional layer to the fun that it seeks to convey to the viewer at all times.
Thus, the opening of ‘Look how they run’ is the summary of the best of the filmboth everything that surrounds the arrival of the first victim and the initial stages of the investigation carried out by a veteran but somewhat twisted police officer, who is forced to work alongside an agent as inexperienced as she is enthusiastic.
In those first 20-30 minutes, ‘Mira how they run’ lays down some enviable foundations, since it shows that it has personality, both in the staging work of Tom George in his first job for the big screen as well as when defining his characters. There is a correct balance between the peculiarities that the script of Mark Chappell as in the contribution of the actors, where it is noted that there is plenty of talent, especially in the cases of Adrien Brody, Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan.
Loses some steam but comes back up at the end
The problem is that the film then fails to keep up with its brilliant start, but even then the great duo formed by Rockwell and Ronan makes us see the successive investigations with interest. And the fact is that the contrast between the two characters works with enviable precision, but also look at other moments separately, such as when she tries to get information using some cookies as an incentive.
What is not so important is what refers to the rest of the characters, whose presence in several cases is summed up in two or three moments of little importance. There are those who know how to take advantage of it better than others, such as the measured histrionics to which he resorts David Oyelow, but the prevailing feeling is that they are trying to gain a little time until the arrival of the great outcome. There, it might have helped that other characters had an even more marked personality instead of opting for a somewhat more normal approach than expected.
Luckily, ‘Look how they run’ in no case is it stretched more than necessary, since its duration hardly exceeds 90 minutes, something to celebrate in these times. In addition, even in its most inconsequential moments, it always maintains a quite unique charm as a result of everything that surrounds the mystery in question. And once it’s time to solve it, the level clearly grows again to leave the viewer with a very good taste in their mouths when they leave the room.
In addition, the resolution fits very well both within the search for a tribute to Christie and exploring the more eccentric touch that ‘Look how they run’ had been displaying until then. I still prefer the starter, which invited to wait for an anthology film and with a brilliant self-conscious touch which then loses a bit of weight as the minutes go by, especially when the suspense comes to the fore over the comedy.
In short
‘Look how they run’ is the perfect appetizer while the arrival of ‘Daggers in the back 2’ is awaited, since it also proposes a curious mystery with a mainly comic approach but with enough personality to stand out on its own. Then the result is not as round as the first act of it promised, but it is still a great self-conscious tribute to Agatha Christie’s novels and much better than ‘Black Adam’, the other outstanding premiere this week.