Review: Knives Out

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" is an Agatha Christie-esque mystery with a quirkier vibe - and a little social commentary thrown in. In the vein of "Clue," the picture assembles various members of a bitterly squabbling family to a large old house, to which a detective named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, putting on a kitschy, southern-fried accent) has been called in the event of the death of the family's patriarch, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a famed best-selling author known for twisty murder mysteries.

Much like one of Thrombey's novels, the circumstances of his death leads to numerous sleights of hand, and rugs being pulled out from beneath the audience. What makes it strange, however, for this type of film is that the central method of Thrombey's death is revealed early in the picture - and, without giving too much away, it doesn't appear at first to involve foul play.

The central figure of the film is Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan's devoted nurse, who is promised by the family to be taken care of after Harlan dies. However, once Marta finds herself mixed up in Blanc's investigation, all bets are off - not only for Marta, but for the entire family as its members are ready to throw the others under the bus to get a larger piece of the inheritance.

Johnson is a director who often dabbles in various genres - from science fiction ("Looper" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi") to hard boiled noir ("Brick") - so, he seems a natural fit to take on a clever genre exercise like "Knives Out." It's not a great mystery film, but rather a solid piece of escapism with a game cast, which includes Chris Evans as the family's black sheep, Jamie Lee Curtis as the oldest daughter, Don Johnson as her philandering husband, Toni Collette as a daughter-in-law and Michael Shannon as the son who runs Harlan's publishing company.

There's also a bit of social commentary that's occasionally thrown into the mix. Marta hails from Ecuador and the family casually brings up the fact that her mother is an illegal immigrant - other than Johnson's character, who hilariously thinks that Marta made it to the United States "the right way" - in a manner that often feels like a threat.

Shannon's teenage son (Jaeden Martell, of the "It" movies) is referred to by Collette's free-spirited "liberal" character as a "right-wing troll," and there's a lengthy discussion in which the adult members of the family have a debate about immigration - needless to say, some of them are Trump supporters. So, there's something of a catharsis involved watching Marta outsmart these people, who claim they'll take care of her, but turn on her in an instant when fortune favors her.

Ultimately, "Knives Out" is a fresh take on the whodunit. It's priority, despite some veering off into sociopolitical territory, is twists and turns. It's less of a thriller than it is a comedic mystery. It also has the benefit of a pretty wonderful final shot. All in all, "Knives Out" is pretty sharp.