'Knives Out' Isn't Very Sharp
"Knives Out" is a great deal of fun where perhaps its simplicity is its misfortune leaving me wanting something more from its characters. Very much in the vein of "clue," this is a comedic who done it where its setting is served as a chessboard to service the writer's overall story. Each of the pawns doesn't deliver anything to the narrative other than their singular characteristic rendering them as hollow as a chess piece. Minutes into the story, we can already figure out who the killer is, which would make for a more interesting film if the script allowed itself to flesh out its cast.
The Thrombey household is the typical one percent bottom-feeding leaches one could imagine. There's Jonie Thromby (Toni Collette), your textbook reality TV housewife who runs a skincare brand that has an ironically similar name to Gwyneth Paltrow's goop. Next up is Walt Thromby (Michael Shannon). The alcoholic son who spends too much time behind his old man's liquor cabinet, drunkenly bragging about all the work he's never done. Meg Thromby (Katherine Langford) is the angsty gothic teenager who despises her alt-right little Nazi brother Jakob (Jaeden Martell), a boy who's more in touch with offending strangers on social media rather than acknowledging the world beyond the prisms of his iPhone. The inlaws are just as likable with Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), your snappy strict woman who wants what is hers no matter the cost. Her husband Richard (Don Johnson) is a whiskey on the rocks racist who isn't afraid to bring up politics during Thanksgiving dinner. To top off this group of charming personalities is Ransom Drysdale (Chris Evans) Ransom is a John Hughes character with all the money but none of the charm. He's a sweater-wearing entitled jerk who's smarter than everyone else and doesn't spare a second to let everyone know it.
The man who owns all the money is Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plumber). Unlike the others, Harlan has a heart. It probably helps his persona not to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth, building the Thrombey Empire on his own, sort of. The one person who shares the most with him on a personal level isn't a member of his soul-sucking family but rather his caretaker Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) Marta is the screenwriter's textbook angelic figure. Always innocent, always wanting to do the right thing. She's never tempted by greed or selfishness. Such a noble protagonist can bore an audience as there's nothing for us to be entranced by as we know that no matter what happens in this film to Marta, she'll do the right thing. Everything in the movie plays things so safe the script feels like it could have been picked from any episode of "Murder She Wrote."
After the mystery of Harlan Thromby's death Writer/Director/Current "Star Wars" Sacrificial Lamb, Rian Johnson spends much of the time unraveling a secret that isn't all that mysterious or compelling, to begin with. What I did appreciate about the enigma behind Harlan's murder was how quickly the killer is revealed. I am not a fan of murder mysteries. Once the audience finds out who the killer is, there's not much we gain out of seeing the film from a subjective angle. Nothing lingers on the mind; everything is boringly stagnant. It's as bland a category to me as an action movie. Who did it? Now we know who did. Let's look at the clues next time we see the film that could reveal the killer's identity. Pictures like "Insomnia" spark my interest where the story doesn't revolve around who killed the victim but rather how the killer and the detective's lives intertwine with one another, drawing us closer to the characters on an intimate level. Granted "Knives Out" is a comedy, but that doesn't excuse the film for making everyone in the film either a punchline or a divine archetype. With such an all-star cast, you would think Johnson would give everyone something to chew on. Instead, we are served with consistent jabs at Trump's America. The film never fails to tell us every five seconds why we should hate this wealthy (possibly racist) family. What we know about them other than their narcissism is close to nothing. Marta is our story's hero, who's Johnson's embodiment of the immigrant stuck in the middle of a Republican world. It's another hate the mean conservatives film that serves up our favorite red hat-wearing bimbos on a silver platter that is at this point pretty redundant in movies. I'm a liberal, and I'm saying this.
Initially, when viewing "Knives Out," I had a great time. I came in with no expectations since I'm not a fan of this category of film, then came out feeling sufficiently entertained. That feeling didn't last, however, and I don't have much desire to see the movie again. The entire story revolves around one plot twist that anyone in the audience can see from a mile away. In that massive chunk of time before the twist, does the movie try to make us understand anything about Marta or the Thrombey's in any way? No. What it mostly gives us is Daniel Craig's Detective Benoit Blanc spouting multiple monologues going back over "the night of the murder." Bless Mr. Craig, he is so happy to be in anything but a James Bond film, but his foghorn leghorn Kentuckian eccentric character isn't enough to service an otherwise hollow script. Although undoubtedly entertaining, "Knives Out" may prove to be duller than a bludgeoned blade upon repeated viewings.
**1/2 out of ****
