Here we are on the set of Game of Thrones, folks. Please don’t meddle with the stage pieces. [Sotto voce: Damn kids. I should never have taken this position as tour guide.]
What could possibly go wrong?
Yet, in Knives Out (2019), Harlan Thrombey, master of the murder mystery form, is found with his throat slit and the knife still in his hand the next morning, and the fun begins. Between children who’ve been sucking at his teat for their entire lives, grandchildren twisted by their parents, and faithful nurse Marta, there’s no shortage of suspects.
Into this delightful mess strides private detective Benoit Blanc, an American of non-specific Southern extraction (actually, my Arts Editor gagged a little on the actor’s accent), hired anonymously to travel to Massachusetts and assist the local police in the investigation into what appears to be a suicide.
Slowly, methodically, and quietly, he begins to unravel the story presented, not realizing there’s not one, but two deceptions clouding the view.
But the lead here is nurse Marta, the Ecuadoran who may be here legally, but her Mom’s not. Who may have been Harlan’s best friend, but is doing horrible things for him. Sort of horrible. Maybe horrible?
And looking at a bleak future, paved in green paper. You were wondering? Of course you were. And she hates it.
Knives Out doesn’t hit all the targets. The gratuitous use of shock is ineffective – so the grandkid is a Nazi who pleasures himself in odd places, that’s just not really a big shock, but then today’s culture specializes in shock. A second victim, well, I didn’t even recognize her, and I was paying attention. She should have been given some sort of distinguishing characteristic. A third eye, poor taste in art, SOMETHING.
But the storytellers do have their clever moments, and I won’t spoil them except to say I did enjoy the opening sequence of police interviews. It’s not unique, but it’s well done and gives a bit of insight into all these family members.
There may not be anything profound in Knives Out, but the plot didn’t seem to have any holes in it, bad people got some sort of comeuppance, and it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. Just don’t worry about his mother, or who the hell was the mother of all these kids. Maybe they popped out of Harlan’s forehead. Or something equally scandalous.
