Knives OutFamily is always there for you...even if only at the reading of the will. Knives Out is a black comedy and murder mystery about the death of prominent mystery author, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), the detective named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who is anonymously hired to determine his cause of death, and Harlan's young nurse named Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), who gets caught in the middle of the investigation. And then there is Harlan's surviving family, who comes together for the funeral--slavering at the reading of the will--each with more than a few chips on their collective shoulders.
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From the start, Knives Out is built into the mold of the classic whodunit, à la Agatha Christie. Blanc is a Poirot with a Southern drawl, and the Thrombey extended family is filled with wildly diverse, colorful characters. Marta is the sole "normal" character in the batch, and thus the audience's emotional anchor. Harlan is an eccentric with a fondness for games, according to his daughter, Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), who prides herself on being a "self-made" business owner. But like the rest of the family, Harlan's offspring have been gleaning the blessings from their patriarch's legacy for nearly their whole lives. Harlan's son, Walt (Michael Shannon), manages Harlan's publishing company, yet must conform to his father's impulses about how his properties are to be published, making Walt's job largely ornamental. Harlan's other son has long since passed away, although his flaky widow Joni (Toni Collette) still ingratiates herself to the Thrombey family, ensuring that her father-in-law pays for Joni's daughter, Meg (Katherine Langford), to go to college. The extended Thrombey clan is rounded out by Linda's shallow husband, Richard (Don Johnson), and their arrogant son, Hugh "Ransom" Drysdale (Chris Evans). The myriad idiosyncrasies of this cadre of self-absorbed survivors is evidenced from the first interviews Blanc sits in on and then leads after the funeral. He baits some of them to gossip to him about the other family members they scorn, picking up on the animosity ripe between them. He also identifies a useful tell that Marta has in his investigation--she becomes physically ill when telling a lie. Marta and her family come from Ecuador (a detail that is often confused by the rest of the family), and she had been a friend to Harlan in his final days. As Blanc conducts his interviews, he pieces together the fateful night on which Harlan died, and observes the various motives that could implicate any one of the family members. But as his police colleague Detective Lieutenant Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield) shares, none of the motives seem especially likely to lead to murder. Blanc shares with Marta that he has a theory about detective work, where the truth is eventually revealed as reliably as gravity. But what Blanc isn't counting on is just how well someone adverse to dishonesty like Marta is can keep a secret.
Knives Out has more than a few nods to the legacy of compelling murder mysteries that have preceded it. The opening scene shows Harlan's mansion decked out with toys and dolls, including a nearly life-sized winking, scruffy sailor with a pipe in his mouth. This recalls the excellent mystery, Sleuth, which also had a character that liked to play "games" and who wrote murder mysteries. When Marta returns home from the funeral, she catches her mother (Marlene Forte) watching "Murder, She Wrote" in Spanish, and Harlan's housekeeper, Fran (Edi Patterson), goes on and on to Marta about a particular Hallmark movie murder mystery. Even the structure of the story checks all of the boxes of so many others like it, including where and how the climactic confrontation with the murderer occurs, despite it being more logical to arrest the person and take them to the police station after charging them. Knives Out is designed to appeal to murder mystery fans who likely grew up with movie adaptations of works like Murder on the Orient Express or even Gosford Park. Harlan's mansion is filled with eccentric architecture, designed almost solely to satisfy the narrative, including trick doors and windows. The ensemble cast also fulfills this brand of murder mystery movie aesthetic; it is packed with actors and actresses recognizable for their recent and memorable roles from various other films. Yet unlike so many other films of its kind, Knives Out spins its dialogue to be highly contemporary and topical. For example, the Thrombeys debate politics during Harlan's eighty-fifth birthday celebration, tossing out social media pejoratives like machine gun volleys at one another. For example, Walt's wife, Donna (Riki Lindhome), defends the "alt-right" politics of her son, Jacob (Jaeden Martell), against the attacks by Joni and Meg--themselves a pair of "champagne socialists"--while holding the most impressive martini glass I've seen in a while--in turn provoking Walt to bite back with vitriol at his sister-in-law. In another scene, Ransom shows up to the reading of the will, only to be browbeaten and condemned by all, including his parents; and this prompts a tirade of scatological retorts. Conversely, Marta abstains from such foul language or hateful discourse, reinforcing how the rest of the Thrombeys are all terrible people with nary a redeeming bone in their collective body. In this way, writer/director Rian Johnson cleverly compels the audience to sympathize with Marta, even as details about the secret she keeps surfaces.
Recommended for: Fans of a self-aware murder mystery that leverages tropes of the genre for comedy as well as scratching that itch as another satisfying genre film. With an all-star cast and punchy dialogue, the best audience for Knives Out is the one that doesn't balk from loathsome characters and delights in a plot with lots of twists and turns.
Knives Out has more than a few nods to the legacy of compelling murder mysteries that have preceded it. The opening scene shows Harlan's mansion decked out with toys and dolls, including a nearly life-sized winking, scruffy sailor with a pipe in his mouth. This recalls the excellent mystery, Sleuth, which also had a character that liked to play "games" and who wrote murder mysteries. When Marta returns home from the funeral, she catches her mother (Marlene Forte) watching "Murder, She Wrote" in Spanish, and Harlan's housekeeper, Fran (Edi Patterson), goes on and on to Marta about a particular Hallmark movie murder mystery. Even the structure of the story checks all of the boxes of so many others like it, including where and how the climactic confrontation with the murderer occurs, despite it being more logical to arrest the person and take them to the police station after charging them. Knives Out is designed to appeal to murder mystery fans who likely grew up with movie adaptations of works like Murder on the Orient Express or even Gosford Park. Harlan's mansion is filled with eccentric architecture, designed almost solely to satisfy the narrative, including trick doors and windows. The ensemble cast also fulfills this brand of murder mystery movie aesthetic; it is packed with actors and actresses recognizable for their recent and memorable roles from various other films. Yet unlike so many other films of its kind, Knives Out spins its dialogue to be highly contemporary and topical. For example, the Thrombeys debate politics during Harlan's eighty-fifth birthday celebration, tossing out social media pejoratives like machine gun volleys at one another. For example, Walt's wife, Donna (Riki Lindhome), defends the "alt-right" politics of her son, Jacob (Jaeden Martell), against the attacks by Joni and Meg--themselves a pair of "champagne socialists"--while holding the most impressive martini glass I've seen in a while--in turn provoking Walt to bite back with vitriol at his sister-in-law. In another scene, Ransom shows up to the reading of the will, only to be browbeaten and condemned by all, including his parents; and this prompts a tirade of scatological retorts. Conversely, Marta abstains from such foul language or hateful discourse, reinforcing how the rest of the Thrombeys are all terrible people with nary a redeeming bone in their collective body. In this way, writer/director Rian Johnson cleverly compels the audience to sympathize with Marta, even as details about the secret she keeps surfaces.
Recommended for: Fans of a self-aware murder mystery that leverages tropes of the genre for comedy as well as scratching that itch as another satisfying genre film. With an all-star cast and punchy dialogue, the best audience for Knives Out is the one that doesn't balk from loathsome characters and delights in a plot with lots of twists and turns.