Movie Review - Knives Out

The trailer for Knives Out presents what looks like a classic whodunit while also hinting that we should expect some distinct differences.  The cast includes some hot current actors as well as some popular established actors who we haven't seen much from lately.  This provides a nice balance and will likely help to draw in a varied crowd.  Clips from the trailer also show that the writer and director are obviously having a little fun with the genre and filling it with humor amid the somber topic of murder.
 
In many ways, the story is reminiscent of an Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle story.  The patriarch of a wealthy family has been found murdered in his luxurious estate and a brilliant investigator shows up to help the police in their investigation.  Before long, it becomes clear that everyone has a motive and the clues are elusive.  Naturally this review will try to steer clear of any spoilers that would ruin the experience, although it is unlikely that anything but the most overt spoiler would lead a reader to a correct deduction.
 

Once the initial plot is set forth the movie plays with the viewer in a few ways.  First, we are presented with a series of unreliable narrators each telling their version of what happened "that night."  Rather than just let us discover the inconsistencies in their tale later on, the movie lets us watch the "actual" sequence of events that the character experienced and then see them tell the detectives a slightly different story.  The story draws the audience into a special confidence by giving us information that the police don't have.  In doing so, the audience is also subtly persuaded to try and solve the crime before the investigators.
 
Then, before the audience could have unraveled the mystery on our own, the script takes another diversion from the mystery genre and shows us the actual crime in flashback.  Once again, we are in the head of a narrator remembering what happened that night and then telling the detectives a different story.  Only in this case, the actual events involve the crime.  And we're not even halfway through the movie.
 

So now we're in the middle of a mystery movie where the detective is trying to solve the crime but we already know whodunit.  The plot now becomes segmented into the actions of the detective trying to solve the case and the actions of the criminal trying to avoid detection.  This change in storytelling lead us to ask questions as we ride along with the investigator and the criminal.  Which character are we supposed to be rooting for?  Is there some alternate explanation for the events we were presented?  Are we supposed to be deducing something different?  The uncertainty caused by this revelation lower's the viewer's suspicions while at the same time heightening our curiosity.  An interesting paradox.
 
We continue to be presented with tropes from the mystery genre such as the unlikely witness, the discovery of mud in unlikely places and the surprise revelation(s).  The story does an excellent job of deliberately pacing itself between methodical outlining of information and a sudden rush of energy and action.  Eventually, everything reaches the climax and a solution is imminent. 

The presentation at this moment provides the viewer an opportunity to take a guess at a solution and thus feel satisfied with the outcome.  There's still a minor surprise or two to be had and then everything wraps itself up in a nice little package.
 
The acting was good and I felt like most of the characters were well established and presented.  The movie was rated PG-13 and I felt like most of that was due to some deliberate "language" that was otherwise unnecessary but from a marketing standpoint they likely figured it would do better as a PG-13 than a PG rating.  It also felt like some of the "language" was deliberately targeted towards Chris Evans' character simply because he's spent the last decade or so in the public's eye as a character who chastised other movie characters for swearing.  So having him drop some blue language added to the film's humor at a 'meta' level. I felt like Daniel Craig did a decent job with his accent. It felt believable, though again sometimes I wondered if they just wanted his accent to be extra different from what we've heard before. Overall it was fine.

I personally rather enjoyed this film.  I have a lot of fun with the classic mystery genre and like watching the older movies and tv shows with characters from Agatha Christie and others.  And yet, even though those stories have their share of twists and turns, in many cases they all end up feeling very similar.  I found Knives Out to have familiar elements from those classic stories while being fresh and interesting.  It's probably not a good fit for young viewers, not necessarily due to the content (except for swearing and some of the themes) but also because younger viewers may not be as captivated by the plotline and could get bored.  But for teens on up, this is an excellent murder mystery that will keep you wondering right up until the end.  Definitely enjoyable.
 


4 out of 5 stars