Knives Out puts an engaging and refreshing spin on the murder mystery genre by giving us winning performances and a solid, engrossing script. This may be the new standard for murder mysteries to follow.
It stars Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a private detective with a southern accent who’s been called to solve the murder of a family patriarch (Christopher Plummer). The patriarch was a wealthy mystery writer and his entire family has motives and alibis as to where they were during the crime.
We get an ensemble cast ranging from Jamie Lee Curtis as the eldest daughter and Don Johnson as her husband. Other great supporting work comes from Michael Shannon as the owner of his father’s publishing company and Toni Colette as a lifestyle guru and, of course, there’s Chris Evans as the arrogant grandson. Evans and Craig, in particular, have some sparring exchanges including one where Evans meets Craig and says, “CSI: KFC.”
One of the more intriguing characters is Ana de Armas as the patriarchal caretaker. After some intense interrogating, Craig comes to believe she might be the main suspect but her culpability is inconclusive. Maybe she is in on it. Maybe she isn’t. Hmm.
Besides the aforementioned superb cast and witty script, writer/director Rian Johnson also gives a film that looks and feels like a love letter to the murder mysteries of the past and also gives each character a plausible motivation and a unique twist that keeps it from getting bogged down.
I refuse to divulge any more information other than to tell you that I had a great time with Knives Out and I think it’s one of the year’s best and most entertaining films.
As for the murder, well, don’t tell anybody about this movie unless you are planning on seeing it.
Grade: A
(Rated PG-13 for thematic elements including brief violence, some strong language, sexual references, and drug material.)
