So I checked out the new whodunit murder mystery Knives Out today. This is the first film from Ryan Johnson since he wrote and directed The Last Jedi… a film with some controversy behind it. But this movie is a little back to basics for him since he also wrote and directed the high school film noire Brick a number of years ago. It’s back to crime for him… but also back to subverting expectations.
Subverting expectations because Knives Out isn’t the ensemble cast whodunnit that its advertised as. Yes, it does have a large cast of colorful characters in a house where someone has been murdered and a detective has to figure out motives and opportunities. All that’s there in the first twenty-thirty minutes of this flick. It’s also self-aware that its got the trappings of a classic whodunnit… hell, the movie references Clue directly. But the thing is, after a certain point, this movie stops being that kind of murder mystery and becomes a completely different one… and that’s kind of disappointing since we don’t get a lot of whodunnits… but also very intriguing because the film starts to become very unpredictable.
Unpredictable and fun, I’m happy to say. It’s not as good a movie, I think, as critics are saying (they are raving over it) but it’s still fun and the mystery is challenging. My biggest problem with the movie though is the opening act which is directed and filmed weird… it’s hard to pin down why I was so checked out but it’s probably just that it tosses you into a murder mystery without any setup so the various characters aren’t people with motivations yet. But that’s kind of the trope that’s being knocked down because there’s a sequence that reveals waaaay more than a usual whodunnit at the end of the first act that comes as a real surprise. A surprise in that this is not how a whoddunit is “supposed” to be.
But revealing much more than that would be a spoiler and I think the movie’s worth discovering on your own. It’s a good flick though you might be disapointed by which of the fine quality ensemble don’t really get much screen time since the movie is doing something completely different. The film looks great, its actors – especially some of the lesser known ones – do a fantastic job, and Daniel Craig… well.. I’m not sure why they picked him to play a country-fried detective but I guess he’s having fun.
Score: 82