Knives Out is a Modern Day Whodunnit Directed by Rian Johnson. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate Harlan’s dysfunctional family and devoted staff, Blanc is determined to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death. Before I continue, this review will be talking about key plot spoilers and ultimately giving away the mystery, you have been warned!
The Good
I really enjoyed this movie, the story was very well played out, the acting was very well handled. My favorite thing about this movie was that it was a typical mystery movie, it actually is two different movies, a mystery and a crime drama. This is because about half way through the movie, it was revealed the the victims caretaker when giving him is nightly medication she accidentally gives him an overdose of morphine which worries him and tells her to do this extreme plan to escape and he kills himself by slitting his throat. But before he died he told her exactly what to say to the detective because she has a condition where when she lies it causes her to vomit. The detective believes her lie and she gets away with it, the movie then follows Marta as she is hiding from the family and detective so she doesn’t get caught, when she runs into Chris Evans character, Ransom Drysdale, which is who I originally thought was gonna be the killer, because throughout the movie and trailers he was shown to be a jerk character, plus he didn’t go to his grandfathers funeral, but was early for the will reading. Anyway, he meets up with Marta and she tells him everything which leads him to try and help her which ultimately gets her seemingly caught by the detective. But it is then that she tells the detective the truth, which is when he puts the pieces together and reveals that Marta is not the real killer and it is actually Ransom because he switched the drugs she was supposed to give him in hopes she would give him the real medicine, but she actually gives him the right medicine but scares him into thinking he would die, which drove him to kill himself. This twist was handled so well and made the movie much more enjoyable because usually you are trying to find out who the killer the entire movie, but with this you think you know who the killer is, so you can enjoy the story.
The Bad
This movie has a ton of big name people in it, Like Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and many more. Some of these people have been in other very great films and shows but I feel in this movie they are not given a lot to do. The main two people you follow throughout is Ana de Armas (Marta Cabrera) and Daniel Craig (Detective Blanc). Other than that these other remarkable actors are really just side characters and they are all extremely self centered and unlikable, which makes the ending much more satisfying.
Overall
This is a very fun and rewatchable murder mystery that keeps you attention, and aside for most the character being miserable jerks, the movie still is very enjoyable and worth checking out.
Make sure to let me know in the comments what your thoughts were and any other movie I should check out.
CaptainGamer54Reviews 