Knives Out (2019)

 

Director: Rian Johnson

Stars: Daniel Craig, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer, Chris Evans

Short Review, no spoilers

Star-studded ensemble murder mystery directed by Rian Johnson, persistent critical darling despite being responsible for the nosedive in quality of the recent Star Wars reboots. His clever-clever approach hits the right notes on several minor keys but otherwise is typically not nearly as smart as it tries to be. Worth watching for performances by Curtis, Johnson, and Shannon – more time spent on them than thrusting smartphones at the audience for blatant product placement would have helped.

Full Review (spoilers)

This is an entertaining enough thriller but not worthy of all the hype. The trailer suggests something quirky and original much like other films by the same director, and it is sporadically littered with some amusing asides along with a nice spin on the classic murder mystery whereby a suicide is naturally more complicated than initially suspected. Ultimately however, it is something of a disappointing event, while a pleasant enough way to kill a couple of hours.

An interesting cast at least promised a spectacle of performances, but there is nothing exceptional here. Daniel Craig does a good deep south accent and his performance is accomplished but there continues to be something frustratingly reticent about him, like he needs to let go, lighten up a bit. He is being given opportunities to break out of the Bond mould but comes across as passionless, needing instead to inject his characters with some life and warmth, particularly here where a typically eccentric super sleuth could have been fun. The best of the bunch is Jamie Lee Curtis, demonstrating the assertive presence of an experienced but seemingly underused actress, however we don’t get enough of her to power the film any further along than average. Likewise, Don Johnson is enjoyably cavalier and the funniest of the lot but only able to raise laughs in brief spurts. It’s not that some got better lines than others, but that some did better with the material.

Michael Shannon, who can over-eggs things a bit, balances his role very well here – his part as the needling weakling of the family doesn’t descend in to cliché. Toni Collette is less successful, but who could blame her for running out of inspiration in the crap, neurotic mother department. Chris Evans is perfectly sleazy as the arrogant grandson of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), who is the victim and perpetrator of a murder mystery the likes of which he himself has made millions writing, and whose vast will his entire family are desperate not to be written out of.

Despite flaws, the generic flourishes and starry cast are some of the more successful aspects of a film which, in actual fact, revolves around Harlan’s South American nurse, Marta, in terms of plot and in politics. Held up as a Little Orphan Annie type pawn in a classically neo-liberal two fingers up to Donald Trump, the film troubles racial politics before finally reinforcing the divisions it thinks it’s interrogating. As the heroine of this intellectual white man’s protest, Ana De Armas is insipid, but what can you do with a role in which you’re sold down the river? She is delivered to us as the only truly caring individual amongst a bunch of selfish brats and yet, she ain’t too smart. Her character’s integrity is sacrificed for the sake of the plot – she’s presented as intelligent and a worthy companion to her wise employer (in that she beats him at the board game Go more than anyone else), something taken for granted by his blood kin. And yet she follows the writer’s plot to a tee and allows herself to be manipulated repeatedly by dastardly rich Americans. Marta obediently follows Harlan’s instructions to cover up a murder they both believe she accidentally committed and, right from the beginning, her actions are humiliatingly foolish. In obeyance to the demands of the plot, and within the narrative her master’s orders, her character’s supposedly positive qualities are immediately questionable – surely a truly moral, sound, intelligent, and well qualified nurse would call a bloody ambulance if she thought she’d accidentally poisoned someone, rightfully disregarding his ridiculously elaborate ploy to cover it up. Also, would she be so dumb as to fall for the conniving Ransom (Evans) and confess all to the wrong guy so naively?

As an example of the aforementioned plus points, what does work are the variously satirised ways in which the ‘social bubble’-occupying Thrombeys lazily misidentify Marta, in terms of her nationality and her role in the family. During one scene, the siblings are seen to be split roughly down the middle of each side of the Trump divide. Richard (Johnson) invites Marta in to a heated debate after vocalising his support for tough immigration policies (‘not you though, Marta’), before absentmindedly handing his empty plate to the nurse (not ‘the help’) as he speaks.

Although somewhat cliché, and actually a surprisingly ill thought out move that is nearly Marta’s downfall, Harlan really twists the knife posthumously by leaving all of his property and money to Marta. It is nevertheless enjoyable to watch the smug faces of his expectant brood disintegrate rapidly in to horror and rage when it is finally revealed, and then the sneaky ways in which, one by one, they try to cajole, threaten and manipulate Marta in to giving it all up to them, the ‘rightful’ benefactors. Naturally, Walt (Shannon) exploits the illegal national status of Marta’s mother, nasty right-wing bastard that he is. Even granddaughter Meg (Katherine Langford) finds herself imploring Marta when she finds out her own mother Joni (Collette) can’t afford tuition fees for her ‘Marxist, feminist teaching’ college course (as witheringly described by Curtis’ Linda). This was an excellent opportunity to skewer neo-liberal hypocrisy and explore how ALL types of people are vulnerable to corruption when faced with the possibility of great wealth - no matter their political inclination - however Johnson quickly retreats back to the left with Meg swiftly repenting, she and Marta sharing a gooey cuddly moment in which all is forgiven.

Overall, the film is stylishly but not imaginatively shot and performed - the prop of an elaborate sculpture made of knives looks cool but is pointlessly overused until the end, when the bluntness of its point becomes the point. As for its politics, as amusing as the ending is, it is yet another woefully naïve liberal flag wave which will sadly date many films made during this divisive era (said in the hope that at some point we will all grow out of it).