Benoit Blanc: “When people get desperate, the knives come out.”
An Americanized twist on the Agatha Christie murder mystery, Rian Johnson writes and directs Knives Out (2019), an entertaining crime-centric dramedy that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Centred on the suicide (or is it murder – cue the dramatic music) of famed crime writer and patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), he was the centre (and benefactor) of his entire family. Though this is the genesis event, the main player is actually his kind-hearted and thoughtful caretaker/nurse, Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) – someone who is constantly reminded by Harlan’s relatives that she is a part of the family (despite them claiming she is from Ecuador, Cuba, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil – definitely part of the family). With a really weird disorder, she vomits anytime she attempts to lie – not good in a murder mystery.
Who might these people be? There is eldest child and real estate mogul Linda (cockily confident Jamie Lee Curtis) and her somewhat whipped husband Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson), as well as their jobless playboy son Hugh ‘Ransom’ (a full of himself Chris Evans); Joni (Toni Collette) – a hippyish life-style teacher who married into the family (her husband has since passed), and her poetry loving college-going daughter Megan (Katherine Langford); while cane-using youngest son Walt (Michael Shannon) is in charge of his father’s vast publications (and their rights). . . married to Donna (Riki Lindhome), their son Jacob (Jaeden Martell) is a far-right leaning politically active youth not popular with the rest of the family; lastly, there is ‘Great Nana’ Thrombey (K Callan), Harlan’s aged mother (funnily enough, in reality, she is five years younger than Plummer) – so long has she been on this planet, no one is even sure exactly how old she really is.
Though the police are on the case, namely Detective Lieutenant Elliot (Lakeith Stanfield) – a rather stoic individual, and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) – a fanboy of Harlan’s who is so excited to be on the case (somewhat reminiscent of Bob Hope’s character from The Cat and the Canary – who is always calling back to movies that remind him of the scary situations), a renowned private investigator has also been hired (by an unknown source), the famed Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig – porting an accent just a bit shy of Foghorn Leghorn. . . part Hercule Poirot, part Sherlock Holmes, he may even have a little Miss Marple in him), is, in reality, the man in charge. . . pulling the strings from the shadows just behind the two officers.
Latching on to Marta, Blanc recruits her as his so-called Watson, a truth telling sidekick that he riffs off of. . . hoping to discover the many mysteries hiding within the secret passage-filled mansion (excellent production design with features that create a rich and mysterious backdrop).
Cleverly written, Johnson actually makes a big reveal relatively early on. . . yet, as any good mystery audience knows, this does not solve the case. Packing the Thrombey house with unreliable characters, every individual could be the possible murderer – for we quickly learn that mistakes have been made, affairs are being had, multiple arguments occurred just prior to the murder, and, if the rhyme were true – many people’s pants would be on fire. By doing this, Marta, being the one truth sayer, is the only safe bet. . . but could even her record be as clean as we might think?
A clever ode to the classical murder mysteries of yesteryear, Rian Johnson updates these traditional themes and motifs for the twenty-first century, Knives Out having plenty of sharp edges that keep you in anxious suspense. An interesting final note – clearly Johnson is not the only talented person in his family. . . his cousin, Mark Johnson, developed the title credits utilizing the same fonts found on the Agatha Christie paperbacks, while another one of his cousins, Zack Johnson, did all of the paintings of the cast seen during the end credits, to round things out, cousin Nathan Johnson composed the suspenseful music for the movie – the first time he has developed an orchestral score. . . quite the family! So, be a Captain and make the decision to see this made in America take on an Agatha Christie-style conundrum – hopefully it’s not representative of a slice of life.