Sometimes you come across a movie that just hits the sweet
spot—something crisp and fun and nicely satisfying—and you walk out of the theater
with a slight smile on your face thinking… that was swell. Knives Out is
such a film. And go figure, delivered to us this holiday season in a hard-to-find-nowadays
wrapping—the classic whodunit. The genre may be infrequently used lately but
you know the drill—someone has been murdered (usually someone important and/or
rich), lots of likely suspects in close quarters, and a sleuth with nigh super
human deductive powers. Knives Out lacks none of these. But the film is
more than classic formula, it has that special it. Acclaimed writer and
director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) has
injected the schtick with an intelligent whimsy and stylized the glorious cast
of suspects and their Clue-board setting into a feast for eyes, mind, and funny
bone.
Successful crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher
Plummer) has died, violently, in his ornate mansion, the night of his birthday party attended by all of his loving family members. Ruled a suicide initially,
now enter Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), private investigator of “great renown” into the
investigation. His presence and purpose in the investigation is a mystery in and
of itself, but his skill is not, and he immediately finds reason to suspect
foul play and begins to untangle the “twisted web” laid out before him. He is
surrounded by the usual numerous suspect motivations: greed, jealousy, desperation, fear.
But Blanc has a special gift for seeing the trajectory of the mystery and, thus,
the ability to follow it to its inevitable landing place… the truth. The ensemble
cast is perfectly over-stuffed and wonderful, especially Michael Shannon (as
usual) playing the son-in-law heading Thrombey’s publication business and in
fear of losing his place in the family fortune, and Christ Evans as the reckless
black-sheep grandchild who Harlan sees so much of his young self in. But Craig
steals most scenes with Blanc’s “Fog-Horn-Leg-Horn” drawl and the projection of
an all-knowing yet little-revealing understanding of the complex pieces of the
game that is afoot. The case is, indeed, following an arc, and you know that Blanc
see’s it which just builds our anticipation to see it too.
Knives Out is simply smart, off-balance fun and sharp as a
tack. A throwback yes, you could say, and yet completely fresh. The film is, in
a word, delightful and we all require a little delight in our lives; go see
this one. 8.5 out of 10.
