Film Review: Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’ 'Brick' director Rian Johnson takes a break between 'Star Wars' movies to deliver this old-school, all-star Agatha Christie homage.
With a surfeit of pretentious, over-produced and downright boring movies to signal this as one of the worst holiday seasons ever, many people crave a good old-fashioned murder mystery modeled after one of those intricately plotted page turners by Agatha Christie. Like me, they want a perfect head-scratcher, like Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Knives Out, from writer-director Rian Johnson (Star Wars:The Last Jedi), is not it, but as a spoof of Christie, it has a few giggles that in the final 15 minutes turn into guffaws.
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- “Knives Out” is a murder-mystery “whodunit” written and directed by Rian Johnson. My thoughts on films can and do change over time; I’m looking at you, “It Chapter Two.” Sometimes though you just know, and with “Knives Out,” I know that this is cinematic greatness. This film is difficult to talk about without giving away spoilers.
- Knives Out review — yes, Daniel Craig can still be fun London Film Festival. Tuesday October 08 2019, 5.00pm, The Times. Daniel Craig and Lakeith Stanfield in Knives Out, an.
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That comment is not meant as a negative. Intentional or not, this alleged thriller is more of a comedy, and maybe I’m just jaded, but to me, there isn’t a genuine thrill in sight. Still, I found it an enjoyable enough way to pass the time between clichés. The plot: Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a rich and famous crime novelist, is found the morning after his 85th birthday party, on the floor of his gloomy old country mansion with his throat slashed. The next two hours asks “whodunit”?
KNIVES OUT ★★★ |
Knives Out Review Guardian Movie
It could be any member of his creepy staff or dysfunctional family. Everyone has a motive and they’re all suspects, including the old man’s daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her greedy husband Richard (Don Johnson), their worthless playboy son Ransom (Chris Evans) who has been disinherited on the night of the murder as the black sheep of the family, son Walt (Michael Shannon) who has just been fired from running his father’s publishing company, daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette) who has been discovered stealing $100,000 year from Harlan, her avaricious daughter Meg (Katherine Langford), and, most important of all, Harlan’s devoted private nurse and personal confidante Marta (Ana de Armas), a Guatemalan immigrant and the only person in the house who supposedly had nothing to gain from his demise.
One by one, their lies, secrets, crimes and misdemeanors are discovered by Benoit Blanc, “the last of the gentleman detectives,” played by a miscast Daniel Craig with a cornball Southern accent that sounds like a mouth full of fried grits.
In a concerted effort to keep the final reveal a secret, Johnson asks the audience in a filmed prologue not to become whistleblowers—an unnecessary request, to be sure, since Knives Out is so crammed full of plot twists, blackmail notes, toxicology reports and red herrings that you couldn’t explain what happens at gunpoint.
Who hired Benoit Blanc, a cross between Hercule Poirot and Li’l Abner, anonymously? Who switched Harlan’s meds and filled his veins with morphine? I left asking more questions than the film ever answers, but it’s worth the effort when you get an occasional line of real wit like Craig’s description of a reading of the will as “a community theatre production of a tax return.”
KNIVES OUT. Starring: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Tony Collette, and Christopher Plummer. Directed by Rian Johnson. Rated M (Mature themes and coarse language). 130 min.
This American mystery thriller is directed, written and co-produced by Rian Johnson who directed “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017).
The film has an ensemble cast and details a master detective’s investigation of the death of a family patriarch who was Head of a deeply dysfunctional family. Several classic mystery thrillers have inspired the film, including novels written by famed, crime-writer, Agatha Christie.
In the film, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a wealthy crime-novelist, asks his extended family to come together at a remote mansion to celebrate his 85th. birthday. The day after his birthday party, however, he is found dead in his study with his throat slit.
Experienced and debonair detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is called in, a little mysteriously, to investigate Harlan’s death, and everyone in the family becomes a murder suspect. In Blanc’s own words: “I suspect foul play (and) have eliminated no suspects”.
Everyone in the house, including non-family members, has some motivation to hide. Harlan’s grandson (Chris Evans) is a spoiled playboy, who coverts Harlan’s wealth. Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) is Harlan’s nurse, and has had a relationship with him which many in the family resent. Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), Harlan’s eldest daughter, eyes his money for her real estate company which is in deep financial trouble, and daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette) has been defrauding Harlan for years.
Nearly everyone in the house has a reason for wanting Harlan dead. All the family members are fiercely combative with each other, and interact together very unhealthily. Benoit Blanc’s gives himself the task of sifting through self-serving lies to uncover who wielded the fatal knife. The movie emphasises family members’ arrogance, and viewers are never allowed to forget that it is members’ prejudices and selfishness that have led them astray. The Harlans are a family, whose privilege is under threat.
Knives Out Review Guardian Newspaper
The film is a treat from start to finish. It is plotted cleverly, and offers a wonderful spoof of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery novels, such as “Murder on the Orient Express” (1934), and “Death on the Nile” (1937). It satirises old mystery thrillers with ingenious twists and turns, and provides its own special twists to sustain a level of tension that holds throughout. While not reinventing the genre, it parodies it smartly and with flair. The last five minutes of the film are sheer plot-narrative magic, where everyone gets his or her just desserts, including a would-be murderer.
The ensemble cast provides genuine star-power with stand-out performances by Daniel Craig, as the film’s entertaining, resident sleuth, and Ana de Armas as Harlan’s trusted nurse, who always beats Harlan at the games he plays with her.
Rian Johnson clearly loves the genre he is spoofing, and puts his own stamp on it as Director. He constantly introduces narrative plot elements that run counter to expectation, but he is helped by a talented cast, which comes into its own, especially when interrogated by an opinionated sleuth.
This is a stylish whodunnit that satirises crime thrillers cleverly, and manages to offer wry comment on modern American politics on the side. It supplies comment, with observations to match, on wealth, entitlement, privilege, social standing and greed, as well as illegal immigration.
This movie is hugely entertaining, and not to be missed for an excellent, escapist night out. It keeps the viewer guessing until the very end. Typically, one learns to plug holes in the plot, only to realise they can’t be plugged in that way at all. The film is a worthy tribute to the genius of Agatha Christie.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting Data rescue for mac os.
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Knives Out Review Guardian Book
Released November 28, 2019