The key to a good ‘whodunnit’ – the word being most commonly associated with Knives Out, the new film written and direct by Rian Johnson – is plotting and structure. There must be a central event – in this case a murder in a countryside mansion – around which the plot can revolve, but it must be constructed in such a way as to a) be compelling and mysterious; and, more importantly, b) make sense when the revelations come. Knives Out achieves these essentials and, crucially, has a great deal of fun doing so.
Agatha Christie’s name has been mentioned time and again in relation to this film, and it’s not hard to see why, not least because Christie was a great proponent of the kind of tight structure and mystery plotting exemplified in Knives Out. But also, I think, because Christie revelled in economy of character and plot, something which Johnson has clearly enjoyed doing here.
The basic setup of the plot is as follows: Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a wealthy author of crime novels, invites his family to his mansion to celebrate his 85th birthday, but is found dead the following morning, throwing doubt and suspicion among squabbling siblings and other questionable characters. The police are on the scene quickly, but the real investigative work is carried out by Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a private investigator and “the last of the great detectives” who has been hired by a mysterious hidden figure.
In the character of Blanc, a charismatic rogue with a drawling deep south accent, Johnson has dared to try to emulate, and lightly play with, the idea of the ‘great detective’ popular in so much crime fiction. Craig, clearly relishing the accent, does a really good job of making Blanc a believable character, even if he is a fairly one-note creation, and the film is daring enough to constantly encourage us to doubt both Blanc, and indeed the film’s, intellectual faculties. One speech about donuts, in particular, resonates as a piece of terrifically well-delivered soliloquy. Ludicrous, yes, but funny and compelling.
The latter point sums up Knives Out quite well, because while the film takes itself seriously as a detective story, it’s also not afraid to have fun with the genre, and to court laughs on a fairly regular basis. It helps that the ensemble cast are universally having fun, from Toni Collette as a vapid, poseurish lifestyle guru, to Michael Shannon, who has his eyes on his father’s publishing business.
But the film’s star turn, even taking into account Craig’s good work as Blanc, comes from Ana de Armas as Marta, Harlan’s nurse. She gets the film’s best and most dynamic role, and much of the success of the plot revolves around her performance. To say more would be to spoil the fun, but the way the film plays with her character, and the way she interacts with others, is the heart of the piece, and its most enjoyable element.
The film indulges in red herrings and playful misdirection, as the genre demands, but crucially not in a way that later comes back to damage the effectiveness of its revelatory final movement, which conjures that wonderfully cathartic feeling of joining all the pieces together, in a way which is satisfying and stands up to scrutiny.
It may be a symptom of the film’s tone that it doesn’t consistently summon a sense of real jeopardy, and that as a result the final movement isn’t quite as hard hitting as it could’ve been. It could also be argued that there are also some characters that initially seem intriguing who, perhaps unavoidably, fall somewhat into the background. But these are minor quibble s when viewed in light of the whole, which is a thoroughly enjoyable, modern take on what is a well-worn genre, which dares to poke fun at its heritage while revelling in its quirks.