#looper

Inspector Cluedo

There’s no mystery that writer-director Rian Johnson loves playing with genre expectations. From the shady central mystery of debut movie Brick, to the twisty sci-fi plot of Looper, the director has a gift for pulling the narrative rug from under your feet, so much so that his divisive story for Star Wars: The Last Jedi was accused of veering too far away from the galaxy far far away. Let loose in the more modest setting of a murder mystery drama, and freed from studio control, Johnson latest film is a much more assured and entertaining use of his skills, though the approach is very much still the same - set up familiar genre rules, and throw everything you know out of the window.

Set in present day, but with the old-timey sensibilities of a classic murder mystery, the plot hinges on the death of wealthy patriarch and renowned crime author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer effortlessly communicates his character’s generosity in a handful of scenes) on the night of his 85th birthday. With an ingenious interview sequence that introduces the film’s many colourful characters, we quickly get up to speed with the dysfunctional family that spent this night with him, establishing potential motives and tensions, and laying down intricate details that come into play later. Though initially dismissed as a clear-cut suicide, this does little to quell the suspicions of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), an eccentric detective whose gift for sniffing out mysteries are the stuff of tabloid celebrity.

We see this unfold through the eyes of Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan’s personal nurse and friend, and typically, the person you’d least expect. Surprisingly holding the cards to some of the movies key moments, de Armas plays her character’s complex character arc to perfection, a warm-hearted yet determined presence that you root for as the film progresses. Surrounding her is what can only be described as a circus-like bunch of big egos and hangers-on to Harlan’s enormous fortune, memorably brought to life by a dreamy ensemble cast. Jamie Lee Curtis is the proud, ‘self-made’ daughter with a successful real estate business, Don Johnson smarms it up as her unfaithful husband, Toni Collette is brilliant as Harlan’s cloying, social-media obsessed daughter-in-law, and Michael Shannon impresses against type as the insecure son who looks after Harlan’s publishing business. As Harlan’s entitled grandson ‘Ransom’, Chris Evans is a particular delight, a smug and smirking ‘trust-fund baby’ who tells the entire family to eat shit in his very first scene.

Throughout, Johnson shows an expert grasp of his material, drawing a lot of comedy from his subversion of audience expectations. Things never quite go the way you expect, and the story’s dramatic revelations are punctuated with odd little details that add colour and intrigue to the story, like a character who throws up when telling a lie, an ill-timed car singalong, or one of the most anti-climatic car chases in cinema history. And, in Benoit Blanc, Craig has delivered one of mystery cinema’s biggest oddballs - an unconventional sleuth who adores the thrill of unravelling a mystery (his donut analogy is hilarious) and speaks in an old-fashioned southern drawl that shouldn’t work, but somehow compliments the character’s quirks. Like this character, you’ll find joy in puzzling together the film’s various plot points, which come together in a way that makes sense, and feels worthy of the build-up before it. The end result is a film so engaging and cleverly put together, that you’ll likely be disappointed when it reaches its thrilling conclusion.

Smart, funny and masterfully orchestrated, Knives Out is a pitch-perfect murder mystery that pays homage to the genre’s conventions, while repackaging them in a way that feels witty, fresh and unpredictable.

★★★★★