Knives Out (2019)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Knives Out (2019) – R. Johnson

Undoubtedly, I had my expectations set too high for Knives Out.  I should have realised that there are essentially no really good adaptations of Agatha Christie (although this film is inspired by her rather than adapted from her) – gentle readers, correct me, if I am wrong. I do love the old mystery series (Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, The Thin Man, etc.) but they rarely earn 4 stars or above. Of course, Knives Out does benefit from a strong cast (particularly Ana de Armas and Daniel Craig) and a particularly tricky plot that inverts the genre by giving away the culprit early on. There is a certain delicious appeal to finding out that all of the characters have guilty secrets or that one is physically incapable of lying – these set the terms of our contract with the genre. But the film’s intentions for comedy are perhaps not broad enough – the characterizations are almost funny but not quite. Perhaps too another run through the events of the evening from another perspective would have tripled the fun (especially if some filmic fat were edited out)? As it stands, it is no doubt enjoyable to watch Detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) piece together the clues of the case (and he may have a sequel in the works already) but I find myself counting the ways that the film might have been pushed just a bit further into greatness… that said, I am sure director Rian Johnson knows how to court mainstream success and I do not.