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We saw Knives Out and you should, too
Dec. 30th, 2019 12:28 pmKnives Out is a silly melodramatic mystery movie that involves not a lot of suspense, one or two twists you'll likely see coming, and an excellent cast having fun. 4/5 stars and if you enjoy Agatha Christie-type mysteries this is in your wheelhouse.
There's not much to spoil about this movie but I'll keep this spoiler-free. The movie revolves around the investigation and aftermath of the death of Christopher Plummer's Harlan Thrombey, the patriarch of a privileged eccentric Massachusetts family. Thromby researches and writes mysteries, lives in a household full of oddities related to his stories, and doles out his fortune to his children. On his 85th birthday, though, something changes and he's found dead that night. The question as always is "whodunnit" and also "why".
The detective in this case is played by Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc - a deliberately terrible-accent New Orleans PI. Benoit himself doesn't know who hired him via an anonymous envelope of cash so along with the central murder he also wants to solve that mystery.
Harlan's household includes children, their spouses, two grandchildren, and one nurse-assistant, Ana de Armas(*) as Marta Cabrera. Marta was, apparently, the last person to see Harlan alive and she is enlisted by Benoit to help his investigation as someone who (it seems) has no motives in Harlan's death. Each of the family members turns out to have motives and each is clearly lying. We see most of the movie through Marta's eyes and we learn what she knows. This puts us often one step ahead of the detective and police and I found it an enjoyable point of view when compared to typical mysteries that center the detective.
Because the movie doesn't go for high suspense - we learn as things progress what some of the more obvious lies are - the fun rests in the performances. Everyone is playing over the top melodrama, presumably on Rian Johnson's direction, and it's delightful to watch.
(*) I've been niggling at where I had seen her before but had to go to IMDB to remmber that she was Joi in the Blade Runner:2049 flop. She's also scheduled to appear again with Daniel Craig in the upcoming Bond film.
There's not much to spoil about this movie but I'll keep this spoiler-free. The movie revolves around the investigation and aftermath of the death of Christopher Plummer's Harlan Thrombey, the patriarch of a privileged eccentric Massachusetts family. Thromby researches and writes mysteries, lives in a household full of oddities related to his stories, and doles out his fortune to his children. On his 85th birthday, though, something changes and he's found dead that night. The question as always is "whodunnit" and also "why".
The detective in this case is played by Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc - a deliberately terrible-accent New Orleans PI. Benoit himself doesn't know who hired him via an anonymous envelope of cash so along with the central murder he also wants to solve that mystery.
Harlan's household includes children, their spouses, two grandchildren, and one nurse-assistant, Ana de Armas(*) as Marta Cabrera. Marta was, apparently, the last person to see Harlan alive and she is enlisted by Benoit to help his investigation as someone who (it seems) has no motives in Harlan's death. Each of the family members turns out to have motives and each is clearly lying. We see most of the movie through Marta's eyes and we learn what she knows. This puts us often one step ahead of the detective and police and I found it an enjoyable point of view when compared to typical mysteries that center the detective.
Because the movie doesn't go for high suspense - we learn as things progress what some of the more obvious lies are - the fun rests in the performances. Everyone is playing over the top melodrama, presumably on Rian Johnson's direction, and it's delightful to watch.
(*) I've been niggling at where I had seen her before but had to go to IMDB to remmber that she was Joi in the Blade Runner:2049 flop. She's also scheduled to appear again with Daniel Craig in the upcoming Bond film.
