Review of Knives Out (2019) by Markhreviews — 17 Dec 2019

In Writer/Director Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out,” the whole is less than the sum of its parts. But there are so many parts – actors, plot twists – that the whole thing still works, sorta.

Writer Johnson (“Brothers Bloom,” “Looper,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) clearly has taken delight in creating a puzzle box of a movie that’s filled with twists, turns, ambiguities and misunderstandings. To celebrate his 85th birthday, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) invites his extended family to a celebration at his estate. But wait: nearly everybody has just been cut out of the will. In a staggeringly unpredictable development, by the end of the evening, Thrombey is dead. The subsequent investigation is complicated by the fact that most members of Thrombey’s family seem both loathsome and self-absorbed enough to have done the deed. The only exception to this pageant of narcissism is Marta, Thrombey’s nurse/caregiver/friend, who apparently would have to take a demotion to become Mother Teresa. Complications ensue. The game is afoot. Other clichés follow.

These convolutions are examined and explored by private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), whose keen mind will leave no stone unturned and whose Southern accent will leave no syllable undrawled. One character even questions whether this is “CSI: KFC.” It’s all great fun.

Director Johnson has at his disposal an embarrassment of riches. In addition to Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Chris Evans and Toni Collette are all elegant pieces on this three-dimensional chess board. Frank Oz even takes a break from breathing life into Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear to portray a reasonably life-like attorney. With so many of these actors playing against type, the pleasure they all take in this enterprise is almost palpable. However, it’s Ana de Armas (“Blade Runner 2049,” “War Dogs”) as Marta who most fully commands attention. De Armas will next be seen alongside Craig in the 2020 James Bond installment “No Time to Die.” Get used to seeing her. She’ll be in at least four major films next year.

What doesn’t work in this film is the tone. For the most part, the film strives to be a worthy installment in the tradition of the Agatha Christie who-dunnit genre, a goal at which it generally succeeds. However, there also is enough time spent burnishing the image of the “new immigrant” and chronicling the evils of the entitled – both themes explored repeatedly, repetitively, repetitiously, redundantly – that the detective story sometimes stalls a little. Is this social commentary or farcical fun?

On the whole, though, this is entertainment that’s worth your time, if only to see Daniel Craig temporarily trade in his medium dry martini, shaken not stirred, for a mint julip.