Knives Out

Written and Directed by Rian Johnson

Rating: 🔥 That’s hot

Something foul is afoot in this murder mystery for the ages. On the morning after his 85th birthday, acclaimed murder mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead in his study. Was it really a suicide? Or did one of the members of his quirky family have a reason to see the old man off? Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) was summoned by an anonymous request and he sets off the solve the classic whodunit.

What ensues can only be described as good old-fashioned fun. Through a series of twists and turns, this well-written script will leave you clamoring to figure out who the murderer is from start to finish. Every member of the Thrombey family (Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Riki Lindhome) and Thrombey’s staff (Edi Patterson and Ana de Armas) is armed with a motive. This film starts out pretty slowly and takes a little while to build momentum. But once the train gets rolling the story really takes off. The other critique I have for this film is Daniel Craig’s abominable southern accent. Not quite sure why that character choice was made, but in the slow first act I found the phony accent to be quite distracting. By the end of the film you hardly notice it, but I didn’t feel like the accent served any purpose even in its least distracting moments. If you can get past the bad accent and slow first act, Knives Out is sure to deliver laughs and mysterious intrigue.

Review written by Zianna Weston