Knives Out Movie (2019) | An Unusually Woven Smart Tale

An absorbing unique suspenseful flick, unlike anything you have ever come across. Knives Out movie, directed by Rian Johnson, the man who gave us Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017, is very different in terms of how suspenseful movies generally get made. Not only is it smart and witty, it packs in a good amount of jests too, making every sinuous path, a very entertaining one to tread on.

Knives out movie is intricately woven to appear like a very straightforward story, although the big reveal is kept hidden at all times. But that is something that you do see coming. Sadly it is not much of a revelation for you, if you have been paying proper attention, unlike other whodunnit flicks where they generally keep you guessing and come up with the least likely character who has committed the deed toward the end.

In terms of that, it is pretty sincere for it doesn’t delve into such cliched extravaganza. But the way the movie plays around with its content is a feat to watch out for. How it leaves its protagonist clueless for the most part making you wonder – is he really worth anything? And then bam! there he is, the protagonist who saves imminent tragedies from happening.

Knives Out Movie Direction

The Knives Out movie is simply fueled by its direction. If you take a look at how smartly things are crafted, the intricacies that go in the positioning of the sequence of events, you realize a lot of the things are owing to the direction of the movie. It literally screams Rian Johnson in every frame.

There is more of smart work evident in the way he plays around with his frames. Using props to layer up his stories with new possibilities, and the way he comes back to it, not leaving anything open-ended. It is a feat only good writers and directors achieve.

Best judge of character is a dog. I’ve found that to be true.

The best part is the way the movie constructs itself on the podium of a moral. It sticks to it even when all things seem to be going against it. Rian makes sure it is the victory of veracity over crookedness, thus proving a fair and valid point. If you are right, it doesn’t matter if the whole world is against you. You are going to get justice in the end.

Benoit Blanc in Knives Out Movie (Spoilers)

The Knives out movie universe has its very own protagonist just like Hercule Poirot was to the Agatha Christie tales, the one we had seen take a much tangible form in Murder on the Orient Express in 2017.

The game is afoot. Eh, Watson?

Here, Rian creates his very own sleuth Benoit Blanc portrayed by Daniel Craig and that too in a role with specifics that you would remember for a really long time. Daniel literally becomes someone else. He is no longer the guy you remember from 007 Spectre. He epitomizes this whole new character yet again just as he had done in Logan Lucky making him a newborn avatar altogether.

Now if you are expecting Benoit to be a really smart Sherlock kind of protagonist, you will be fooled. For Knives Out movie doesn’t bank on his smartness for the better part. You are forced to wonder what is he really doing in the flick, what contribution is he really making or why is he not able to see through the things that seem so evident?

Marta: You’re not much of a detective, are you?
Benoit: Well, to be fair, you make a pretty lousy murderer.

But that’s how his character has been decorated. He is a smart man but his real smartness is revealed when he figures out the real culprit toward the end. But for most parts, he remains as a clueless sleuth who is given answers on a silver platter.

If the movie is trying to build him as a memorable character, it fails somewhere, for there wasn’t anything impressive about this character, except toward the end where he goes for the big revelation. That being said the future sequels are going to build up on this character, which seems promising.

Marta Cabrera

Marta Cabrera played by Ana De Armas is the girl around whom the whole story revolves. Ana has done a fantastic job playing a damsel in distress with a comic surreal situation, where she can’t lie no matter how hard she tries, for she ends up puking.

You have a regurgitative reaction to mistruths.

It has been done theatrical for effect even though you think it wasn’t necessary. But that’s how the movie plays that smart card. It does it so effortlessly that something so trivial is no botheration at all.

Even though Benoit has a golden goose in the form of Marta, he is unable to leverage her skills to the maximum. The reason being, she is the culprit for the better part. Marta messes with the evidence making things even more difficult for Benoit, making him look like a fool from the audience’s perspective.

As he beats about the bush, she manages to take the story forward. For the most part, she is trying to save her ass taking away all the attention from her. But trouble finds her, only to help her discover she was a mere pawn to someone else’s story.

You can order Knives Out movie from here:

Plot and How you Feel

First of all, don’t expect Knives out movie to be a whodunnit flick. For unlike other suspenseful thrillers, this movie is ballsy enough to spill the beans right at the beginning itself. Then the movie builds itself on who is the real culprit even though the way the murder happens is explicitly shown.

You like the gradual unfolding of events as they carry out, but something deep down keeps telling you, can this movie be this simple? Things mustn’t be as obvious as they seem to be.

Why is grief the providence of youth? I don’t know. But I’d imagine that age deepens all feelings.

It carefully perches itself on that hint of suspense and carries on. You are left to guess with so many subplots in the movie, each member having their own strong reasons to hate the dead bloke. Yes, the wonder is all the subplots that Knives Out movie bears. Everyone has a motive to kill. That’s where it keeps you on tenterhooks.

At all times, toward the end, it proves a very solid point, that it is the honesty that comes through despite being smothered by lies. Only the real truth remains victorious.

Physical evidence can tell a clear story with a forked tongue.

The Final Verdict

Knives Out movie is a very different tale, I will give it that. It is smartly crafted. Intelligently written, so much that you can pause and marvel at every dialogue the movie has.

Benoit Blanc is a great character with a really good mouth, but I think we need to give him more time in the future runs to explore his genius and creativity.

Looking forward to what he has in store for us next.

Close the book with a flourish.

Check out the trailer of Knives Out movie here: