Rian
Johnson, the most maligned director of a Star Wars movie for the
“travesty” that was ‘The Last Jedi,’ ditches Padawans and Stormtroopers for
the Whodunit in his latest project, ‘Knives Out,’ a deliciously devilish but
immensely fun reinvention of the murder mystery genre beloved by casual ‘Clue’
players and hard-core murder mystery party aficionados alike. If you’ve seen the teaser trailer, no doubt
you are as intrigued as I by its Agatha Christie-esque premise of a family
patriarch’s death and the suspected foul play surrounding his untimely demise
with all the attending family members as potential suspects with motives (and presumably
also means and opportunity).
With
a talented all-star ensemble cast including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de
Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon and
Christopher Plummer, ‘Knives Out’ is the tale of a typical dysfunctional rich
family bickering, I mean celebrating the 85th birthday of famous and
wealthy mystery fiction author Harlan Thombey (Plummer) at his mansion, which
unexpectedly turned out to be his last.
In comes Benoit Blanc (Craig), an accomplished and highly respected
private detective who appears to be an amalgamation of Hercule Poirot and
Jacques Clouseau in equal parts with a sprinkling of Sherlock Holmes, whose
name unlike the others doesn’t sound French at all. Unsurprisingly, Blanc solves Harlan’s murder
in the end, but not in the way you might think.
On
a certain level, ‘Knives Out’ is Rian Johnson’s love letter to the classic
whodunits of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. It is also (did I mention?) a fun, inventive
and refreshing take on the genre filled with dark humor and wry wit, with
enough twists and red herrings throughout to satisfy even the most jaded
whodunit aficionados among us. The title
of the film may be a playful metaphor for the dysfunctional and entitled rich
family it portrays and the family members’ willingness to backstab one another
but, more literally, there is a “web of knives” in the film’s mansion setting that
provides the perfect ending to the story.
Grade: A
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