Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in KNIVES OUT, a fun, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death. With an all-star ensemble cast including Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, KNIVES OUT is a witty and stylish whodunit guaranteed to keep audiences guessing until the very end (rotten Tomatoes).
It works: even if I am more inclined to noir than whodunit, it is one of the best Agatha-Christie-style movies I have seen. Superb Craig, ironically smart, better than his last 007s. The film is also politically conscious, since the Trump-like super-rich household is poisonous in itself while nurse Marta, the young ambiguous doc. Watson figure whose family got to the USA illegally, is the positive character, notwithstanding her dangling position shifting from damsel-in-distress to villain and vice-versa. Narratively it is perfect, with its multiple flashbacks showing the same events from different points of view, a classic in whodunit cinema. They are frequent and masterly handled, put in a complex frame that works in the end: the ‘story’ unfolds with an intermingled ‘plot’ that is a school example of montage. You have to watch it twice to appreciate the structure: once the ‘who did it?’ is over, you have time to think about the setup.