KNIVES OUT (2019)

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Christopher Plummer,  Daniel Craig, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette
DIRECTOR: Rian Johnson
GENRE: Mystery and Suspense

This would be a spoiler for most mystery movies--that the butler didn't do it--except for the fact there's no butler among the cast of Knives Out--an old-fashioned whodunit with a shopworn plot in the tradition of Agatha Christie, brought up to date by characters who are glancing at their cell phones a lot.  

The family patriarch, wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), has just bitten the big one under suspicious circumstances. Which introduces us to a host of greedy family members--as we are shown--each of whom has a potential motive for wanting to hasten the old man's demise. Their surfaces are barely scratched, save for Marta Cabrera (Ana De Armas), Harlan's young personal nurse, who believes she may be inadvertently responsible for his death due to a mixup with his medications.Throughout the bulk of the film we are being steered to buy into this version of events, but the surprise twist at the end is a staple of the genre, and Knives Out dutifully sticks to the blueprint.

The large ensemble cast features Daniel Craig as the  quirky southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc, in the mold of Columbo in that he has a sixth sense and just  knows things--piecing the puzzle together ahead of everyone else, and then obligingly laying it all out at the end for the benefit of those of us who are easily lost.  

Ana De Armas, as Marta--the only halfway developed character--brings a range of emotions as she goes to great, and sometimes comic lengths to try to conceal her involvement. Oh, and she has a rather gross and disgusting personal habit, which adds to the splattering merriment of things!

Jamie Lee Curtis, as daughter Linda, the lady who doth protest too much, is annoyingly shrill in her emotive outbursts.

But it's Christopher Plummer who, despite his age (he's pushing ninety), outshines them all and adds to his legacy as one of the world's greatest thespians.

There's lots of witty and  gritty repartee, as self-centered a-holes come up with creative ways to ramp up the snark, making Knives Out a pleasant and grin-inducing diversion on a summer's day in a world where all predictability is off the board.

Catch it on Netflix.

Grade:  B 

JILL'S TAKE

Never having been a fan of the classic dice and card board game Clue, or a devotee of Murder, She Wrote, Knives Out left me falling asleep on the couch. Z-z-z-z. A snooze of a film, the big names in the cast should have warned me ahead of time. I'm always suspect of too many luminaries in the same movie. For me, that translates into a plotless, character un-driven piece of fluff that's hoping star power will save it.

You either enjoy this genre for what it is (fluff-and-murder, murder-and-fluff) or it pisses you off. I fall into the latter category. So many good actors, so little chance to show off their talent. I'm a huge Toni Collette fan (United States Of Tara, Little Miss Sunshine, Unbelievable, etc.) but  watching her in this one-note role was actually painful. And Daniel Craig's terrible southern accent? Gimme a break!

If I have to give kudos to anyone, it's to the Set Decoration guy David Schlesinger. It was delightfully authentic! But the idea that writer/director Rian Johnson was nominated in 2020 for a Best Original Screenplay award is....mysterious, to say the least.

My advice? Don't waste your time. There are so many good series on Netflix and Amazon Prime that are really worth watching.

Grade: D