Knives Out: An Author's Last Murder Mystery

Knives Out was a film that was on my radar for a while, and I did want to see it, though only after I watched Clue. Yes, I'm probably the only person who has never seen Clue before. It was only at the recommendation of one of my friends (thank you Elaina) that I finally said "screw this" and watched it with my dad. Now that I've seen it, I want to see Clue even more, because in truth I very much enjoyed Knives Out, it's just such a fun movie that invites introspection while rewarding both attentive and inattentive viewers alike, and at the end of the day, that's much more than I expected with this film.

Unfortunately the cast's wardrobe is nowhere near as colorful as suggested, but I'd say it's for the best, it's incredibly easy to tell who's from who based on sheer personality.

The plot of Knives Out is a murder mystery, duh. However, what separates it from other mysteries is that by the mid-point you have literally seen the murder happen and who did it, and from there it becomes less of a whodunnit and more of a heist film. Subversion is pretty much the name of the game in the plot of Knives Out, but it's done much better than other times I've seen it used (I'm looking at you season 8 of Game of Thrones). Of course, that's not the only compelling element on display in the film, the funniest (and most subtly disturbing) of these is the frequent uses of unreliable narrators. There's an entire montage of these at the beginning of the film, and it really shows how gross the family of the murdered man are. In each of their stated recollections he was a kindly old patriarch to them, but these statements are each bluntly revealed as a lie with each recollection. Harlan Thrombey, famous author and murdered man, is a pitiable character, for in every truthful glimpse of him there's a strong undercurrent of disappointment in both himself and those around him. He feels both very young and very old in this regard, and he very much won me over in his interactions with his nurse that see him being legitimately happy as opposed to disappointed. Get Out was noted for this, but Knives Out also can be noted for its portrayal of casual and (presumably) unconscious racism. It's something that you have to watch for, but it's incredibly uncomfortable to watch a family that prides itself on their 'open-mindedness' have almost no self-awareness in what they say, think, or do. Besides that, it's also a genuinely hilarious film, with a great mix of absurdism, meta commentary, extended family humor, and more utterances of the word "doughnut" in ten minutes than I ever thought possible.

There's really no middle ground in terms of jackassery with the Thrombey family, some are just a bit better at hiding it than others.

The film's execution is pretty much everything one could ask for in a murder mystery, with snappy editing, a beautiful murder house, details galore in the background, and so on. The editing is really quite stellar, with great implied passage of time (an event is remembered in the space of a coin flip for instance), and the music really helps the snappiness of the editing by being similarly snappy where necessary. I love the Thrombey house, it looks like such a nice place to be with bookshelves filled to the brim with books, knickknacks, and awards. It's also a literal stereotype of a murder mystery house, which makes it even better. The painting of Harlan at the entryway begins as a classic picture of the grim-faced patriarch, but after the mystery is solved, his scowl is replaced with a kindly smile that gives the impression that he's laughing at some private joke. Knives Out is one of those films that you have to watch with one eye on the plot and the other on the background. There is almost always something happening. The casting is something as well, with a great mix of current, rising, and past stars making up the principle cast. I was very surprised to learn that Harlan, played by Christopher Plummer, was Captain von Trapp in The Sound Of Music. Really, everyone stands out in their own way, though admittedly Detective Blanc (played by Daniel Craig) entirely steals the show for me.

I'm still not sure if Blanc is supposed to be a very lucky moron or a genius detective, but regardless it's a side of Daniel Craig I don't think I've seen before. Hell, it might be worth watching for his character alone.

I mean, damn, what more can I say? It's a murder mystery that isn't a bleak thriller, there's really not a lot of those. Knives Out successfully manages to walk the divide between comedy and drama excellently, and those kinds of films are always my favorite, and with that and the other things mentioned earlier in mind, I have give Knives Out a strong recommendation. I sincerely hope that this isn't the last we've seen of Craig's Detective Blanc, he could easily become a new icon in the mystery genre in my opinion.

Next up in my considerable backlog is Magicite, and now that I've finished classes for the spring there'll be a lot more time for me to write these as well as for my hobbies.