Knives Out is a game of Clue come to life, a classic whodunit for the Trump era.
So exactly who killed famed crime author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) on his 85th birthday, leaving him with a slashed throat and dagger in his hand, was it suicide or murder?
After all, Harlan did amass quite the wealth for his mystery publishings so it suffices to suspect foul play is involved.
Importantly, could it be someone in the New England family or perhaps the butler did it?
Thus giving an obvious cue for Police Lieutenant Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) to round up and question the usual suspects within the home, individually.
Consequently, we meet the mysteriously hired southern Private Investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), with an accent as thick as molasses.
Of course, the detective’s suspicions point towards the highly dysfunctional family brought to life by its all-star cast of brilliantly subtle scene stealers.
For instance, Harlan’s eldest daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis). She “created her empire” from the ground up and has a sharp tongue and isn’t afraid to use it.
Especially to her creepy philandering Trump-supporting husband Richard (Don Johnson) or their son Ransom (Chris Evans). Ransom’s the black sheep son who hates them all and thinks they’re all guilty.
Unquestionably that’s just scratching the surface of the wacky Thrombey’s.
There’s Harlan’s son, the clueless Walt (Michael Shannon) and his Fox News loving wife Donna (Riki Lindhome) and their alt-right Nazi son Jacob (Jaeden Martell).
Also, there’s widower Joni (Toni Collette) a liberal GOOP-inspired shallow lifestyle guru and her white feminist daughter Meg (Katherine Langford).
Soon, viewers learn that the last person to see Harlan alive was his caretaker nurse Marta (Ana de Armas). In spite of that, Lieutenant Elliot thinks the suicide case is rather cut and dry although Blanc isn’t convinced.
Marta’s a Latinx immigrant who’s also the familial source of income, she seemingly flies under the radar. She and Harlan became friends and shared a fondness for the competitive strategy board game Go.
Despite the self-absorbed Thrombey’s claims about caring for her, “she’s like family” but she wasn’t invited to the funeral.
Notably, Marta seems skeptical of the Thrombey’s reassurance that she and her family will be taken care of since they don’t seem to know much about her or where she’s from. They just know she’s an immigrant and assumes she’s from either “Ecuador”, “Paraguay”, “Uraguay”, or “Brazil”.
Later, Blanc cleverly questions Marta last because he finds out that she’s incapable of lying, the moment a deceitful notion escapes her lips, she has the urgent need to regurgitate.
Causing Blanc to ask to team up since Marta knows all of the Thrombey’s secrets as a result of her friendship with Harlan. Sifting through red herrings and half-truths, the two have a playful rapport until Marta gets a rather big mention in Harlan’s final will.
Garnering the attention of the Thrombey’s, Detectives, and Blanc which erupts in a cat and mouse-like game.
A classic whodunit setting with a wealthy family played by big movie stars yet at the epicenter of the plot is a caring and hard-working Latinx.
Writer-director Rian Johnson’s updated spin on the cobwebbed murder mystery genre enlaced with mystery and suspense, especially in this type of unexpected setup. Similarly to the serpentine twists thanks to Johnson’s Agatha Christie inspired plot with updated sociopolitical elements.
The plot’s similar to Harlan Thrombey’s manor, sharp-witted and grand in scale yet brimming with puzzles, secrets, and literal secret passages thanks to production designer David Crank.
Indeed Rian Johnson has given viewers all the clues and as they say, the devil is in the details and perhaps even within the knives themselves.
