BLADES OF GLORY
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ANIEL CRAIG heads up a starry cast in writer-director Rian Johnson’s loving tribute to Agatha Christie with a tonguein-cheek country house whodunit.
Knives Out assembles an impressive cast of prime suspects including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Michael Shannon.
Johnson’s script lovingly embraces the tropes of a murder mystery, scattering red herrings before assembling the accused in a wood-panelled drawing room for a private detective’s big reveal.
Curiously, the film’s weakest link is its sleuth: a dashingly tailored Craig with a hammy Deep South accent akin to the one he offered in Steven Soderbergh’s 2017 caper Lucky Logan
It’s a self-consciously showy turn a la Hercule Poirot without the Belgian’s emotional complexity.
Supporting performances are more convincing, including Collette’s droll lifestyle doyenne and Ana de Armas’s nurse, who is the only member of the household to shed tears over the victim’s suspicious death.
Wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) presides over a motley crew of dysfunctional relatives, who have their beady eyes on his vast fortune.
They include his daughter Linda (Curtis) and her husband Richard (Don Johnson), son Walter (Shannon) and his wife Donna (Riki Lindhome), widowed daughter-in-law Joni (Collette) and the three grandchildren: Ransom (Evans), Megan (Katherine Langford) and Jacob (Jaeden Martell).
The cantankerous old coot invites his kin to an 85th birthday party at his mansion but festivities are cut short by arguments.
Later that same night, after doting carer Marta Cabrera (de Armas) has given Harlan his medication, the novelist apparently commits suicide by slitting his throat with a ceremonial dagger.
Detective Lieutenant Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) attend the scene, while quixotic private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) hovers in the background, closely observing family members including Great Nana (K Callan).
“I would like to request that you all stay