Lionsgate
When I was approaching my twelfth year in 1974, the all-star murder mystery based on Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express was released, ushering in a new era of stylish mystery movies with a who’s who of actors being bumped off one-by-one. Of course, Christie’s stories had been made into movies for decades but Orient Express was the first that I knew off to feature a cast of A-list stars (this was at the time of the all-star disaster epics as well). Orient Express went on to earn six Oscar nominations, winning one for Ingrid Bergman as Best Supporting Actress. That led to more films based on Christie’s work but the quality began to diminish and even stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson couldn’t save The Mirror Crack’d. And then slasher movies became all the rage, effectively relegating those stylish films to TV movies with TV movie stars (although Peter Ustinov did reprise the role of Hercule Poirot several times).
But the murder mystery has seen a bit of a revival of late with the success of the Murder on the Orient Express remake — which is leading into a remake of Death on the Nile — and the criminally under-appreciated A Simple Favor. Now, the writer and director of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, comes down to Earth with his take on the stylish, all-star murder mystery, Knives Out which features a who’s who of A-list actors including Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans and Daniel Craig. The set-up for the story is a fairly simple one: family patriarch Harlan Thrombey celebrates his 85th birthday and ends up dead some time in the night, his throat slashed. All evidence indicates a suicide but … Harlan had been methodically cutting each of his children out of his will and out of his book publishing business (Harlan is a writer of … murder mysteries). The last person to see him alive was his caretaker, but she left precisely at midnight. The police arrive and can find no evidence to suggest a murder, but there is a wild card thrown into the mix when Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc interjects himself into the investigation, having been hired by person or persons unknown to solve the mystery (or be an unwitting pawn in a dangerous game). So whodunit? You’ll have to see the movie to find out.
Just a few months ago we had the clever horror comedy Ready or Not hit cinemas which I erroneously thought was Knives Out going into it. That film had elements of the murder mystery but it wasn’t as much a whodunit because you knew who was the presumed victim and who the killer(s) were. But both films do have elements of humor with the former much darker than the latter. I can’t say a whole lot about Knives Out because it’s no fun being spoiled before seeing a movie like this. I will say that the story has plenty of twists that will keep you guessing because things are not always as they seem … as should be in a movie like this. Johnson has done his homework by honoring the mysteries of Agatha Christie and putting a modern spin on things as well. And it’s funny too.
Much of the comedy in the script is played brilliantly by a cast of actors who aren’t really known for doing comedy. Jamie Lee Curtis probably has the most experience with comedy and she’s terrific here as Thrombey’s two-faced daughter Linda, able to be sweet as honey to someone’s face and verbally attack them behind their backs. Chris Evans also found himself in a lot of romantic comedies before becoming Captain America, and his Ransom Drysdale, son of Linda and Richard (Don Johnson), is the more serious of the group although as he received the news of being completely cut out of his grandfather’s will the night of the party (and he left right after, so he has an alibi), he’s enjoying watching his family eat each other as the will reveals who is getting Thrombey’s fortune. Daniel Craig also seems to be having a ball with his heavy Southern drawl, doing his best to put the pieces together by question and observation, taking Thrombey’s caretaker Marta under his wing since she may be the one person who can tell him what happened to her employer and friend. Ana de Armas is terrific as the family outsider, the character we the audience can relate to, seeing the family members’ true colors through her eyes. She’s the innocent caught up in all the madness and de Armas does a great job in earning our sympathies for Marta.
Speaking of the cast, Johnson scores some real geek points here with appearances by the legendary Frank Oz, M. Emmett Walsh and K Callan (as Harlan’s mother, which gives us a great joke about her age). I think I was more thrilled to see these three in the cast!
Aside from the great cast, the film’s production design is wonderful, with Thrombey’s house having a properly lived-in look (and there’s a great joke about the house being the family’s legacy) but not quite being all that it seems on the surface, fitting for the author of murder mysteries. And being filmed in the Boston area, the costume design also has a very specific New Englandy feel too it, particularly with the knit sweaters Evans and Michael Shannon wear. It just all feels so cozy … which is the perfect setting for a classy murder mystery.
Johnson’s script is tight and will keep you guessing, and if you like what he’s done then you’d do well to check out some of the films that inspired him including The Last of Sheila, Murder by Death, Evil Under the Sun, Deathtrap and Clue. But if you haven’t yet seen Knives Out, beware of spoilers and get to the theater quickly to enjoy the mystery on the big screen.
Knives Out has a run time of 2 hours 11 minutes and has is rated PG-13 for thematic elements including brief violence, some strong language, sexual references, and drug material.
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