‘I suspect foul play. I have eliminated no suspects…’
Freedom is a wonderful thing. Daniel Craig shudders and stifles a secret grimace as he delivers yet another eye-rollingly contrived one liner as James Bond. Chris Evans sighs as he looks in the mirror and sees a grown man in a Captain America costume staring back at him. Director Rian Johnson dies a little inside as he is forced to direct a scene in which Carrie Fisher magically flies through the air as aging space monarch Princess Leia. Imagine what these men could achieve if they were free of their respective chains. You’ve just imagined Knives Out…
The death of legendary crime writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) kicks off a series of events that seem to come straight from the pages of one of Thrombey’s own novels. The question of his sizable inheritance leaves his adult children scrambling with Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Joni (Toni Collette), Walt (Michael Shannon) and Ransom (Chris Evans) all vying for their share of the fortune. As is so often the case in a murder mystery, the help (Ana de Armas) is the prime suspect, but in Knives Out nothing is quite as it seems.
Rian Johnson’s love letter to the great detective mysteries of the Victorian era is a delight from start to finish. Johnson wears his influences on his sleeve and allusions to Sherlock Holmes, An Inspector Calls and the work of Agatha Christie are never too far away. Knives Out avoids straying into pastiche territory though, always looking at ways to subvert the familiar tropes rather than succumbing to them. Freed from the constraints of playing James Bond – one of cinema’s biggest dickheads – Daniel Craig has an absolute blast as the Kentucky fried, southern gentleman, detective Benoit Blanc. Similarly, Chris Evans relishes breaking free from Captain America – a dull character at the best of times – to remind everyone why he was so sought after by the Marvel Universe in the first place. Evans is funny damn it, not that you’d ever know it based on the Avengers franchise. Toni Collette and Michael Shannon are also hilarious, the former as a wannabe valley girl and the latter as an uptight fantasist. In short, the entire cast seem to be having a blast, and it’s joyous to watch.
Ana de Armas anchors the film in a career defining role as the caring but tough family nurse Marta, and it is her natural chemistry with both Evans and Craig that helps to make Knives Out probably the most flat out enjoyable movie of 2019. Unless you can’t tell, I absolutely loved this film. Gold stars all round.