Perceive How They Run is based on a straightforward yet scrumptious reason: a whodunnit covered inside a genuine whodunnit, for this situation Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. It not just gives Tom George's film numerous classifications to ridicule — it's a behind the stage show, wrongdoing potboiler, police procedural all enveloped with a sham — yet it considers a knowing, self-referential quality that brings the prides and shows of the homicide secret to the front. It doesn't totally work, yet it's quick, amusing and as often as possible jazzy, finished off with incredible work by Sam Rockwell and particularly Saoirse Ronan.
Mark Chappell's screenplay works effectively of tenderly weaving the story's foolish malarkey with genuine pieces pulled from English film and theater legend. Boss among them is the insider bit of trivia that Christie (exemplified momentarily by Shirley Henderson) embedded a statement into her Mousetrap contract that declared no film form could be made until a half year after the play had finished its dramatic run. The detail gives a conceivable rationale in a large group of connecting with characters to undermine either the stage or movie rendition by means of the homicide of film chief Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody, who likewise describes) behind the stage at the Envoys.
The genuine delight of the film is the affinity between the exploring trudges, Sam Rockwell's skeptical Stoppard and Saoirse Ronan's beginner WPC Stalker.
On the dramatic side we have manager Petula 'Choo' Spencer (Ruth Wilson), entertainers Richard Attenborough (a dynamite Harris Dickinson, who gets the youthful Dickie's voice under control) and Sheila Sim (Pearl Chanda). Among the film suspects are head honcho John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith, playing the genuine maker of The African Sovereign), his significant other Edana Romney (Sian Clifford) and celebrated (read: exaggerated) screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo). The cast assault the pandemonium with zeal yet the whodunnit component eventually loses its hold, the disclosure of the executioner not exactly fulfilling.
There's a knowing, meta quality to the screenplay — a wailing over of flashbacks as an ancient gadget crash-slices to a title-card "90 days Sooner" — and in some cases it feels too winky. Thusly, Perceive How They Run works best while it's inclining toward old-school pleasantry, visual caprice and solid gags ("What piece of France are you from?" "Belgium"). Debutant highlight chief Tom George cut his teeth on lo-fi BBC Three mockumentary This Nation — Charlie Cooper appears as an idiot usher — however lifts his desire here. There are shades of Wes Anderson in the stylisation (The Stupendous Budapest Lodging poses a potential threat) and traces of Edgar Wright in the determined cutting yet George makes it his own, conveniently revealing '50s London's various environments and moving things along at a fair old lick.
Be that as it may, the genuine delight of the film is the compatibility between the researching trudges, Sam Rockwell's critical Stoppard (there's a running joke about coppers named after writers) and Saoirse Ronan's novice WPC Stalker. Rockwell brings grizzled, Walter Matthau-type appeal to the auditor yet Ronan sparkles most brilliant as an over-energetic, by-the-note pad constable, captivated by the suspects and fully trusting everything. They make such a pleasant couple, as a matter of fact, that the further examinations of Stoppard and Stalker would be a lot of gladly received.