Knives Out seemingly presents itself as a straightforward murder mystery; the film immediately opens with the discovery of Harlan Thrombey’s (Christopher Plummer) lifeless body, a very successful crime and mystery novelist, on the morning after his 85th birthday party. A cast of colorful characters with distinct personalities are interrogated one by one by detectives about their whereabouts on the night of and everything else they can remember. But we know that those are all red herrings, distractions and manipulations to just advance their own personal motives. It’s straight out of a traditional Agatha Christie whodunit, complete with a rich, dynsfunctional family and a cunning detective ready to solve the case. However, the real fun begins when director Rian Johnson starts breaking away from the trappings of the genre, starting with private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig).
With the heaviest of southern drawls, Benoit Blanc is an eccentric character, reminiscent of Christie’s own Hercule Poirot, only elevated by Daniel Craig’s kooky performance. A subversion from the cliched brooding detectives of murder mysteries, Blanc brings in a welcome absurdity that rightfully feels at home with the rest of the all-star cast. We witness him joyfully piece together the events of the murder with care, interviewing each of the family members present in the night of the birthday party. Who could’ve possibly done it? Could it be Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), the eldest daughter of Harlan and a “self-made” real estate tycoon and her husband Richard (Don Johnson)? Or Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon), Harlan’s son and the head of his publishing company? There’s even Joni (Toni Collette), Harlan’s daughter-in-law and a modern day “lifestyle guru influencer” and her daughter Meg (Katherine Langford). What about the trust-fund playboy Ransom Drysdale (Chris Evans)? The events of the night are told from their colorful perspectives, but at the center of it all is Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), an immigrant from some Latin country (none of the other white characters accurately knows where she’s from) and Harlan’s live-in nurse.
While Blanc is the audience’s “hero” of the film, cracking the mystery for the benefit of the viewer, Marta is clearly the glue that ties everything together, albeit veiled as a supporting character on the surface. Johnson brings her front and center throughout the film, and presents her as an everyman that everyone can feel for.
The message is not subtle at all. Knives Out portrays the hardships of a daughter from an immigrant family trying to get by in a world of wealthy highbrows trying their best to secure their inheritance. It’s a very modern story with a modern approach, wrapped in a classic murder mystery. Rian Johnson has already shown that he’s willing to veer away in the beginning, in regards to revealing the necessary information you’d expect to find out later on when it comes to these types of movies. This plot structure and its apparent tropes have been overdone at this point, so to make a film about a very familiar genre in 2019 without offering anything new is only setting it up to be a convoluted bore.
And yet, as much as it tries to subvert the genre, Knives Out overall still feels very much like the murder mysteries of old. The characters, the story, and the methods of solving the “big mystery” appears to be ripped out of a ’40s mystery novel, only Johnson successfully finds the right balance between old and new, and sets it in 2019. We don’t get these types of movies these days, and as a lover of mystery novels, this is certainly a breath of fresh air while still respecting what makes it so great.
Rating: ★★★★½
The Talking Screen 