Knives Out (Review)
Knives Out Earns Director Rian Johnson Forgiveness.
Right off the bat, the one thing that I absolutely adored about Knives Out is that it revived the classic murder mystery genre. Sure, there are plenty of movies where a cop has to hunt down a killer, but it’s rare these days to see those films really devote themselves to untangling an intricate web of lies and deceit in pursuit of said killer. Knives Out is a film packed with characters who all had a motive to kill the victim. Even when you think you have it all figured out, it once again proves that nothing is as it seems. All in all, it’s an absolutely delightful film with impressive performances, a keen sense of humor, and a cunning plot worthy of Agatha Christie.
Knives Out starts, as these things so often do, with a death. Famed murder mystery novelist Harlen Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) has seemingly committed suicide. At least, that’s what his family and the police seem to believe. However, world-famous detective Beniot Blanc (Daniel Craig) suspects foul play. Keeping the case open, he sets about interviewing the surviving Thrombey’s and soon discovers that each of them had an excellent motive to kill old Harlen as he was cleaning house and preparing to cut many of them off from the golden teat that they had been suckling on for far too long. Faced with a cast of deplorable family members from a coat-tail riding son (Michael Shannon) to a money-grubbing wellness influencer (Toni Collette) to a spoiled black sheep (Chris Evans), Blanc finds himself in a den of wolves as he tries to figure out what really happened the night of the murder.
I have to praise every member of the cast in Knives Out. The Thrombey family is filled with despicable entitled brats. However, they’re all awful in many different ways. Even the ones who seem like they might still have souls deteriorate rapidly as they learn they might not have access to the fortune that has afforded them their glamorous lifestyles any longer. All of them are so delusional when it comes to their own self-importance, that you can’t help but recognize the jabs that writer/director Rain Johnson is taking at the 1%. For example, the character played by Jamie Lee Curtis believes herself to be a self-made woman who built a huge real estate firm through blood, sweat, tears… and a million-dollar investment from her father. Shannon runs his father’s publishing company and refers to the successful novels as “their books,” and so on. At the center of it is Craig as “one of the last gentleman detectives”. He slowly picks at the family, causing them to quickly turn on each other. Their performances combined with the witty script from Johnson is just a delight to watch from start to finish.
I’ve seen so many movies over the years, that I’m usually quick to figure out who’s who and what’s what before the first act is even complete. Knives Out though kept me guessing long after that. It actually shows most of its cards early on switching gears from a “who done it” to a “how will they get away with it” film. Just as you get comfortable with that, it throws a monkey wrench into those gears and mangles them, forcing you to switch all assumptions up once more. It continues to slowly reveal twists and turns right up until the very end. This is normally something very difficult to pull off because it can bog down a script and make a film seem desperate to “outsmart” the audience. Johnson is no stranger to good mysteries though (see Brick) and manages to keep Knives Out perfectly in tune, like a conductor at the helm of an orchestra. I fully applaud his masterful work.
How do you keep a modern audience interested in a movie that is mostly characters sitting around and talking or searching for clues around the house? Well, attention to detail is one thing that’s crucial. Knives Out drops hints and clues all over the place in such a way that you never fully realize their importance until just the right moment. Most of the movie takes place in a sprawling grand estate, that one character perfectly compared to “the Clue board.” It’s filled with eccentric antiques that seem to say almost as much as the characters do. Speaking of them, Knives Out makes sure to lighten the tension with humor giving a lot of actors uproarious lines, especially Chris Evans, who is playing a character very different from Captain America in this. All of them walk a line that keeps the audience laughing at them as much as laughing with them. The end result is a movie that leaves the audience in stitches just as often as it does the edge of their seats.
I absolutely loved Knives Out and wholeheartedly recommend it as one of the last must-see movies of 2019. It’s a perfectly balanced film and reminds me of what I loved about Rain Johnson’s films pre The Last Jedi. I struggle to think of a single thing I disliked about the film even now as I’m supposed to be critiquing it. Sure, Craig’s drawl takes time to get used to in the beginning, but I learned to love it by the end. Most of the characters are truly awful people, but I loved hating them. Even the epic final twist feels more like a reward than a copout. Knives Out is easily one of my favorite movies of the year and I encourage you all to go see it, especially before social media spoils it for you. It’s well worth the price of admission and even though I know how it ends, I believe I’ll be seeing it at least once more as well.
