I have soft spot in my heart for mystery. It was probably the
earliest genre I got to be fond of (at least, at the time when I first understood
the concept of genres). So, it’s really unfortunate
that whodunits are rare in cinema nowadays.
That’s why a movie like Knives Out
is immediately a must-watch for me.
What I first immediately
loved about Knives Out was the fact
that it isn’t based on a famous book like Murder on the Orient Express. It has an original screenplay. Thus, the
potential of surprise is available for every moviegoer going in.
Second thing I immediately
loved was the cast. I don’t know what it
is about whodunits and its cast, but I feel that a whodunit film requires an all-star
ensemble in order to be a legit one. Maybe
so that the identity of the culprit isn’t easily guessable? Anyway, this movie being studded with several
recognizable names and faces was really an instant source of excitement for me.
Knives Out follows famous gentleman
detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he drops by the Thrombey estate to investigate
the death of the family patriarch (Christopher Plummer), who supposedly committed
suicide shortly after his 85th birthday party. However, something has given Blanc the
impression that it could have possibly been a murder. With suspects ranging from the personal nurse
(Ana de Armas) to anyone in the Thrombey clan (Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael
Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Katherine Langford, Jaeden
Martell, Riki Lindhome, and K Callan), he must examine them closely and sift
through their lies, misdirection, and half-truths in order to get to the bottom of it.
Even though the
movie is set in modern times, it has an appealingly old-school, Agatha Christie vibes to it. It has familiar whodunit elements and
style. The mystery-solving process is also
somewhat Hercule Poirot-ian at times. That being said – I consider the following information a major SPOILER,
so be warned – it’s not a conventional whodunit at all. In fact, it ceases being a whodunit halfway
through. At midpoint, the truth about
what really happened to the focal victim is already revealed. Afterward, the film still has layers of mystery
to uncover, but it also becomes a drama thriller about class warfare.
The producer,
writer, and director of this movie is Rian Johnson, who is considered by many
as the man who ruined Star Wars. Sometimes, it seems like his brand of storytelling
is a bit pretentious, and that his thing is to be subversive just for the
sake of being subversive. I felt that
with The Last Jedi, and I felt that
with Knives Out. Fortunately, regardless
of whatever flaws are inherent to it, his style worked much better for the
latter.
In the end, I enjoyed Knives Out. It’s possible that I only liked it this much
because whodunit films like it are rare these days. Regardless, the fact remains that I did enjoy
it. It’s not perfect, but it’s clever,
funny, stimulating, and insightful enough to be a standout of 2019 cinema.
And, yeah, I’m totally down for a
Benoit Blanc film series.
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