written and directed by Rian Johnson
How does one follow up the most divisive Star Wars movie ever made? Apparently by eschewing film franchises altogether and instead revisiting a virtually forgotten but nonetheless engaging film genre: the murder mystery, albeit with a slightly modern twist. Thus has Rian Johnson made his return to the big screen, with Knives Out, an ambitious, engrossing film that can't completely avoid some cliches of the genre, but still manages to entertain considerably.
The film begins in the manor of mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), with Thrombey's housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson) going upstairs to serve him breakfast, only to find him dead, with his throat slit. After his funeral, an investigation into the death, initially believed to be a suicide, begins, fronted by police investigator Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield), abetted by state trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) and quietly observed by private investigator Blanc (Daniel Craig). Given the considerable fortune Thrombey has left behind, just about all of his surviving family members are suspects, starting with his daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), her husband Richard (Don Johnson), their son Ransom (Chris Evans), her brother Walt (Michael Shannon), and her sister-in-law Joni (Toni Colette). All of them have something or other to gain from Harlan's demise. Another key player in the sordid saga is Thrombey's caregiver Marta (Ana de Armas), a registered nurse originally hailing from a Latin American country nobody in the Thrombey family seems to remember, who has her own dark secret. The question on everyone's mind, then, is who killed Harlan Thrombey?
It's hard to navigate through a review of a murder mystery movie without risking spoiling plot points by mentioning even the most casual details, so I'll keep this short.
I've never been a big fan of whodunits, though I have seen enough of them and read enough Sherlock Holmes books to know that the genre has been around long enough for several tropes to form, and to Johnson's credit he dodges most of them. Even when he doesn't, though he renders his narrative with such flourish that it's still hard to fault him. Freed from the constraints of franchise filmmaking, Johnson presents a taut narrative into which his advocacy is quite skillfully woven. The film is less a murder mystery, in a sense, and more a fable about entitlement and bigotry. Conversations like real world politics may have been too much for Star Wars fans to bear, but they belong right at home here, and the film doesn't suffer for it one bit.
Although discussing the story is pretty much off-limits, I would like to share how I felt about the acting, which is really front and center here. It was hugely entertaining to see veteran actors like Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Johnson just chew up the screen, just as it was a lot of fun to see stars of franchise films like Daniel Craig and Chris Evans in such a vastly different film from the visual spectacles that basically made them famous. Craig, one of the central characters, goes for broke with his Southern drawl in a role that is decidedly NOT James Bond, while Evans, who has significantly less screen time, retools his cocky Johnny Storm routine from the Fantastic Four movies, and quite effectively so. Christopher Plummer is always a delight to watch, though he doesn't particularly flex any acting muscles here, while Toni Collette, as his widowed daughter-in-law Joni basically just annoys, though given that this was how her character was written, I suppose that's mission accomplished. Ana de Armas, whom I found quite beguiling as Ryan Gosling's digital waifu in Blade Runner 2049 acquits herself well, though I'll admit I liked her better in Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sci-fi sequel. For me, though, the real standout was one-time General Zod Michael Shannon, who trades in his superpowers for a cane and manages a voice that's an least an octave higher than his normal one, and basically transforms himself into the weaselly Walt. The rest of the cast, including Lakeith Stanfield, who made his short role as a lobotomized vessel for a geriatric white person's brain in Get Out quite memorable, round out the film nicely with solid, if not necessarily splashy performances.
Knives Out is a genuinely good time at the movies, and it's gratifying to see it succeed at the box-office as cannily-timed adult counter-programming to the gargantuan family movie Frozen II. With its characters, twists and turns and emotional roller coaster, it's a movie that deserves both the accolades and the returns it's currently getting, even as it adds to the growing list of films that continue to prove that Martin Scorsese is full of shit for asserting that franchise films are killing "real" cinema.
8.5/10
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