Knives Out


Rian Johnson loves to take classic Hollywood staples and putting a twist on them, like taking the Forties hard-boiled detective movie and moving it to an 80s High School in Brick. And whilst he previous film might be a whole different thing, Knives Out is a country house murder mystery in the Agatha Christie mould, but Christie wouldn’t have done anything like this…
Some people get murder mysteries straight away and scorn the bit where the whole story is re-told at the end by the investigator, but watching this film is a delightful experience of enjoying the impressive performances and script, and hoping that somehow everything makes sense when the credits roll! And although you’d possibly need to watch it again to see how it fits together, it is so much fun the first time.

The story is of a wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thornbey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead in his big house. Along with the feds, a hired investigator is called. And this is the film’s biggest laugh because Daniel Craig assumes an exaggerated Southern accent to play the kind-of hapless detective who spends most of his first scene listening to Thornbey’s unspeakably awful family who’ve descended on the house in the hope that it will soon be theirs. Toni Colette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon and Don Johnson play various family members—and it’s as if a theatrical matinee is suddenly taken over with a host of performers who’re enjoying being against type. And there’s Chris Evans being even more against and even more outrageous than everyone else: his performance fully commits to the hilarious. Even Frank Oz has a cameo.

The plot is as tightly wound as you’d expect, turning the conventions of the genre around to weave a modern masterpiece of storytelling. The action is mostly in flashback as more and more about each character is revealed in the wake of a family party that took place on the day before the crime is discovered. Benoit Blanc (Craig) takes on Harlan’s carer Marta (Ana de Armas) to assist him in piecing together the evidence as the family rail in anger after the reading of the will.

Obviously the plot is easy to spoil and, although you might feel like you aren’t following it, when it comes to an end you realise that you were. Some people might take issue with the ‘centre of the donut’ which is how the story is described because ultimately murder mysteries all come down to the same thing. It is always the style that makes these stories more pleasing, and this film is full of classic Hollywood camera-work and some big visual jokes, like the circle of knives pointing towards anyone sitting in an ornate wooden chair. The knives are out throughout, and their purpose is played out in the final ten minutes. Those people who don’t want to like Rian Johnson might think that the scene is a bit too broad, but there’s a quiet wit throughout that


 What Rian Johnson does to turn the conventions on their head makes this a slick and deliciously classy re-imagining of the genre.

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