Direction: Rian Johnson
Country: USA
With titles such as Brick (2005), Looper (2012), and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) as references, American writer/director Rian Johnson has proved to have a knack for action thrillers and sci-fi adventures. With Knives Out, he probes the crime-mystery genre with relatively good results. The film, admirable in its narrative construction and bearing some significant parallels with Agatha Christie’s detective stories, features a dream cast spearheaded by Daniel Craig, who, with a heavy accent, gives life to detective Benoit Blanc, a passive observer of the truth. This calm, patient man is hired by an anonymous person to solve the mysterious death of Harlan Thrombey (veteran Christopher Plummer), a wealthy crime novelist who supposedly committed suicide on the night of his 85th birthday.
The closest members of the family are automatically considered suspects and no exceptions are made. Among them are the defunct's avid children, Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Joni (Toni Collette), and Walt (Michael Shannon); the apparently indifferent grandchildren, Ransom (Chris Evans) and Meg (Katherine Langford), and his presumptuous son-in-law Richard (Don Johnson). In addition to minor personal conflicts with the patriarch, all of them had his large inheritance in mind.
Nonetheless, a key element for the enigma happens to be Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), Harlan’s faithful nurse and confidante, who pukes every single time she lies. This factor can be both incriminatory and intimidating. The point is: everyone lies at some point.
Finely calibrated in tone, the film announces the culprit way too early, and the filmmaker tries to mend faults by delivering some fast-paced moves by the end. He totally misses the humor, though. Everything is familiar yet everything is amusing in Rian Johnson’s composed puzzle.
