A web that is easier tangled than unspun, "Knives Out," writer-director Rian Johnson's wildly masterful whodunnit enchants with uncanny wit. Daniel Craig puts an utterly convincing subtlety to Detective Benoit Blanc that his eagerness to solve the mystery has an acidic seriousness and calculating hilarity. It is almost cerebral, but Craig translates his character's internal bravado into raging antics that aid in solving the case of the donut which funnily becomes a confusingly classic film quote. "Knives Out" has a star-spangled cast including Craig, Ana De Armas, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, and Christopher Plummer as the famed novelist Harlan Thrombey whose arcane death shakes the moss in the house and within the family. The plot is not necessarily new, but Johnson's treatment of the mystery genre injects a refreshing mien. Everyone is always a suspect, though early on the chances surrounding Harlan's demise is decoded in a flip of Blanc's coin, showing the story can bloom from its upside in a wink to surprise the unsuspecting viewer. Still, the premature chapter is never a spoiler since the authentic fascination of "Knives Out" is "how" the "murder-suicide" happened, adding a suspenseful glitz into the story through the sub-plot of knowing who hired detective Blanc initially. With Harlan's fortune expected to be inherited by the immediate benefactors, the family -- Joni Thrombey (Collette), spouses Richard (Johnson) and Linda Thrombey-Drysdale (Curtis), Walt Thrombey (Shannon), and Meg Thrombey (Langford) -- unwittingly let steam their personal intentions on their dead heir. Their musings perforate during their individual interrogations with Detective Lieutenant Elliot (Stanfield) and Blanc as their testimonies unravel ulterior motives which taint their claim to Harlan's will.
Enter his purely committed South American personal nurse Marta Cabrera (De Armas), and the stage is set for a native versus immigrant comedy in "Knives Out." The film is an allegory for a nation that houses both natives and immigrants, yet the latter has nourished the home which the Thrombeys are privileged for being born into. As the caretaker of the family's patriarch, Marta has humbly fostered the residence's walls (and Harlan) with sincerity which the descendants only wallow in due to the nurturing halls. That is the puzzle of the film, succeeded by the death in the family. Thus, production designer David Crank dresses up the Thrombey house in crossword puzzle fashion. He styles a secret passage in an abode jammed with maze-like halls, painting the family's labyrinthine intentions without knowing the entirety of the lives their living and with whom. The house is built as a Rubik's Cube-esque emporium with colors that do not match its whole unless the singularly colored natives consult the immigrant who is color-adept to decode the home patterns. An allegory of such proportions asks is the Thrombey estate an immigrant nation or a land of natives meant for immigration? "Knives Out" sharpens the point: the fate of the land relies on its head of estate, in this case Harlan Thrombey, to partake the home among the just and deserving, be they immigrant or native so long as to evade handing crumbs to the privileged. Johnson, having already directed "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," helms "Knives Out" with impressively angled shots. The movie is packed with suave tilted frames captured from beneath the leveled lens for angles imploring the uneveness of the Thrombey home, about to tumble because of the quaking familial relationships. Besides the sloped shots, the camera circuits within the upward still so the scene would not break, instead progressing the takes in an angular panning that describes no momentum shift in jagged visual tension. The suspense is therefore retained while Johnson's sumptuously cuning screenplay flies the story along the camera's playful vision. Rather than being just another whodunnit, "Knives Out" is actually a howdunnit: reinventing the genre by presenting "how to do it," specifically, the rousing death which turns out to remould Captain America -- Evans -- into a totally wicked and vile persona in Ransom Drysdale, Harlan's eccentric grandson. Evans does a nauseating 360 from the valorous superhero role that made him popular, flooring the movie with his intensely coniving plus magnetic ruse. Add in Ana De Armas' riveting acting. Previously seen in "Blade Runner 2049," marking her arrival as Hollywood's newest sweetheart, "Knives Out" announces she is Hollywood now. De Armas brims with stardom in the film, divulging her palpable decorum in the midst of erupting with volcanic glory. Ultimately, "Knives Out" sparkles as the whodunnit, or howdunnit, to beat. Any mystery film from here on will carry the weight of stuffing a fresher cheese in Johnson's near-perfect sandwich of a film which audiences will be eating up with applause. Sometimes the web is better tangled than tying another silk to its composition. Where the strands would snap, "Knives Out" remains impeccably arranged with only a bonkers outlook to trace the lines of its curious glam. Director: Rian Johnson Photo/Trailer © Lionsgate Movies; YouTube.com
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