KNIVES OUT
****
Dir: Rian Johnson (12A, 130 mins)
An all-star spark off each other with aplomb in this Agatha Christie-esque classy, quirky whodunnit from the man behind Brick, Looper and The Last Jedi. Johnson has fashioned a rulebreaking mystery which is both a homage to all the whodunnits that have come before and a subversion of them. The tricksy screenplay revels in the established tropes of the genre whilst at times turning them on their head, and the cast are clearly having a ball. Daniel Craig, sporting a Southern accent, is Benoit Blanc, a Poirot-esque investigator hired to get to the bottom of the suspected murder of Christopher Plummer’s wealthy patriarch, Harlan Thrombey on his 85th birthday. Naturally all his gathered family members seem to have a motive, from Jamie Lee Curtis’ boastful self-made daughter and her idiot husband Don Johnson, spoilt son Chris Evans, intellectual brother Michael Shannon, Instagram-famous sister-in-law Toni Collette, Trump-loving/hating granddaughters Jaeden Martell and Katherine Langford, to members outside the family like nurse Ana de Armas. It’s up to Craig and cop Lakeith Stanfield to get to the bottom of all the chicanery. And much chicanery there is, of a highly enjoyable kind. Respecting and twisting expectations with skill, Johnson has fashioned a supremely satisfying mystery.
Opens Nov 27
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