If
a suspicious character is not played by someone famous, chances are that person
is not the murderer. That is why Agatha Christie movies used to have little
pictures of the cast running along the bottom of their lobby posters. It showed
off how many suspects there were. Winking homage is paid to those films in Rian
Johnson’s Knives Out, which opens
today nationwide.
Johnson’s
screenplay is all about its twists, so some caginess is in order, to prevent
spoilers. It is safe to say Harlan Thrombey, a celebrated mystery novelist and
patriarch of a wildly dysfunctional and elitist family is about to die a
premature death. Marta Cabrera, his private nurse is probably the only one who
truly mourns him. The cops assume it is an open-and-shut case, but Benoit
Blanc, an eccentric Southern gentleman private detective has reason to suspect
otherwise. An unknown client hired his services to investigate, which is rather
suspicious in itself.
Much
to her surprise, Cabrera finds herself pressed into service as Blanc’s Watson.
Of course, it becomes increasingly awkward for her, because she harbors her own
secrets. Needless to say, everything is not as it seems.
There
is quite a bit of clever misdirection going on throughout the film. It would be
no fair telling, but rest assured the big reveals are all quite satisfying. The
knowing humor is also mostly rather sly, but there are times when the scoldy
class warfare messaging should have been throttled down. This is supposed to be
larky fun, not a Theodore Dreiser adaptation.
Fortunately,
Daniel Craig always keeps things snappy when he is on-screen, delighting
viewers with Blanc’s impossibly lazy drawl. Honestly, that accent deserves some
kind of award. It is also great fun watching him effortless shift from genteel
charm to gleeful cunning.
Frankly,
it is rather impressive that Ana de Armas can keep up Craig and the rest of the
colorful ensemble as the almost fatally nice Cabrera. Of course, only Blanc can
withstand the withering attitude Jamie Lee Curtis projects as the tartly
cynical eldest daughter, Linda Drysdale. She is a totally believable chip off
the block that is Christopher Plummer’s uber-yankee Thrombey (and really ought
to have more screen time, but she makes the most of what she gets). Likewise, Plummer
has the appropriate lordly presence, but he has some surprisingly engaging
humanizing moments with De Armas.
Yet,
Don Johnson might just score the biggest laughs as the venal and pretentious
son-in-law, Richard Drysdale. Honestly, Johnson has yet to get the credit he
deserves for his comedic chops (check out his razor-sharp cornpone turn in Cold in July, if you doubt it).
Weirdly,
Toni Collette is largely pushed to the margins as Thrombey’s widowed
hippy-dippy daughter-in-law Joni, but Michael Shannon shows off his usual
simmering rage and intensity as Thrombey’s son and publishing manager, Walt.
Chris Evans portrays the shallow playboy grandson, Hugh “ransom” Drysdale,
which makes sense. Plus, genre specialist Noah Segan regularly elevates the
energy level playing the naïve Trooper Wagner. As a bonus, M. Emmet Walsh and
Frank Oz pop up in small parts (providing an apostolic link to Blood Simple, in the case of the
former).
Knives is chocked full of
clever genre hat-tips, like the Thrombey mansion, which is based on the sets of
the original Sleuth film. Even the
name Thrombey is a reference to the 1980s “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” YA novel,
Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey? That
kind of attention to detail makes the film feel so legit. Arguably, both Clue and Murder by Death were funnier, but Knives is more successful as a legit country house mystery in its
own right. Recommended with a good deal of enthusiasm, Knives Out opens today (11/27) nationwide, including the AMC Empire
in New York.
