Anthony's Film Review - Knives Out (2019)

This is a murder mystery that is entertaining because it is unconventional...

It is easy to assume at first that Knives Out is a standard murder mystery because of the familiar plot premise. You have a rich old man who is found dead, and the multiple individuals who are close to the victim are potential murder suspects. Specifically, the victim is Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a wealthy author of mystery novels. His family includes the daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) with her husband Richard (Don Johnson), Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon), Donna Thrombey (Riki Lindhome), Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette), grandson Jacob (Jaeden Martell), granddaughter Meg (Katherine Langford), and the black sheep of the family named Ransom (Chris Evans). There is also the servant Fran (Edi Patterson) and the nurse Marta (Ana de Armas). If you think about it, this cast is essentially a 21st-century version of characters in a murder mystery from the Victorian era.

The beginning of the movie also makes you think this movie will follow the conventional murder mystery formula. The characters are interviewed by police lieutenant Elliott (LaKeith Stanfield), state trooper Wagner (Noah Segan), and consulting detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). This goes on for quite a while, although the film will jump from one interview to another to ensure the sequence isn't entirely monotonous. Afterwards, the film proceeds to the clue-gathering phase of the story. But then, that's where the similarities with classic murder mysteries pretty much end.

Picture, if you will, the core plot structure of a classic murder mystery. You have the setup, the discovery of the murder victim, the arrival of the sleuth, the sleuth interviewing everyone present, the sleuth looking around for clues, the sleuth figuring out the mystery, and the finale with all characters in the same room as the sleuth reveals definitively the who, what, where, when, why, and how behind the murder. In contrast, Knives Out makes plenty of interesting modifications to this structural formula. Not knowing how this murder mystery will actually unfold is one big reason this film is intriguing to watch. Once you get past the first 20 minutes that feel formulaic, you'll be in for a real treat.

The changes to the classic mystery plot structures allow for another genre to be thrown in: psychological thriller. There are several scenes where certain characters interact with one another and you know each one has their own interests in mind. You end up holding your breath as you wonder which character will have the upper hand and which one will face an unwanted fate. There are also unexpected complications thrown in, which act as a spark for additional reactions by the characters, further driving the plot. Eventually, the finale involves a satisfying merging of mystery and thriller, one that is worth waiting for.

What I've described so far is sufficient for me to rate this movie positively. Still, the people behind Knives Out decided that we really should have fun watching this, which may be why comedy is thrown in here as another secondary genre. It may not be as funny as the 1985 movie Clue, which was truly a comedy mystery, but this will still make you smile. There are some funny moments where some characters are talking trash about one another without the other present. Also, Marta the nurse has the odd habit of vomiting if she lies. And as for Blanc, he is like Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes in that he is a consulting detective with an accent. But it's not any European accent. Believe it or not, Daniel Craig, a British actor, successfully plays an American detective with a thick Southern accent.

Knives Out is one of those movies that stays at one level on my 1-to-10 rating scale and gets better and better such that I decide to move the needle up by one. From the start, it felt like a 7 out of 10. But about halfway through, it inched up to a 7.5, and through the second half, it's an 8, a rating that was solidified by the admirable ending. Besides the storytelling, I also found it nice that the murder mystery genre can still be entertaining even in today's time. It's all a matter of creativity and a willingness to defy conventions. Kudos to the cast, director Rian Johnson, and the rest of crew for doing just that.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Knives Out, visit the Internet Movie Database.

In addition, check out my review of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.