Film review: Knives Out

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas give audiences a preview of their acting chemistry ahead of ‘No Time to Die’, to be released in November. ‘Knives Out’ is like a cinematic Cluedo, where a house full of people are suspect to the murder of the wealthy father/grandfather of the family. Many themes and details are done with a classic murder mystery in mind, yet it also lulls you into a comedic tone to set up for shock value.

Having seen Toni Collette in ‘Hereditary’, I was quite shocked to see a hysteric, traumatised mother, turn into a materialistic airhead, she was a small role in the film but among others her character was quite a funny one. The leads, who I’d probably say were Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig and Chris Evans, all did fantastic jobs, but I was particularly fascinated by Ana and Chris. The former was tasked with acting out a gold-hearted character who couldn’t lie, Chris Evans was a tool (couldn’t think of another non-swearword).

Had I done the review and rated it at one o’clock in the morning I may have fallen into the trap of being swept away by the finale, which was smashing cinema. I don’t think the whole film was supposed to be similarly breath-taking, it seemed like the classic detective reveal would have felt less shocking if he’d have done Sherlock-esque expositions every 20 minutes to impress everyone. Instead, we were given an awkward, painful investigation, where the ball felt out of the detective’s court quite often, and I’m glad it was done in this way.

In terms of the convoluted mystery and quality of twists, it meets just about the highest standard I can confer with my relatively general film repertoire. I was completely drawn into the writing and nothing seemed too outlandish to admire. An overall good film that matured into a great film.

Rating: 8.5/10