Sharp and funny whodunnit

Rian Johnson

Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer 130 min

16 D L V ★★★★★

DANIEL Craig delivers a slab of Smithfield-sized ham in Knives Out,a cheekily playful updating of Agatha Christie by way of Trump-era politics.

Don’t let that scare you off. Nearly every ideological tribe comes in for gentle ribbing from writer-director

Rian Johnson in this comedic thriller.

Populated by a quirky ensemble of miscreants, ne’er-do-wells, misfits and at least one hilariously moony New Age doyenne, Knives Out doesn’t hesitate to get a few licks in regarding immigration politics, liberal hypocrisy, internet trollery and the we-built-that mythologies of inherited wealth.

But mostly Johnson is here to revive a nearly lost form cherished by fans of everything from Murder on the Orient Express and Sleuth to the board game Cluedo. In this busy, bickering whodunit, the hints pile as quickly.

The fun here – and there is a lot of it – is to be had simply in allowing an ensemble of game, generous-spirited actors to give their all in service to the fine art of misdirection and mayhem.

That starts with Craig, who plays Benoit Blanc, a detective sent to investigate the death of a renowned author named Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Affecting a Foghorn Leghorn drawl (“What is this, CSI: KFC?” someone quips), Blanc questions Thrombey’s extended family one by one, to ascertain whether his demise was accidental or something more nefarious.

Conducting his interrogations in front of an extravagant starburst sculpture (that happens to be a spectacular take on the movie’s title), Blanc embarks on what amounts to a screwball Rashomon, during which Harlan’s heirs – a rogue’s gallery of puerile brats and plutocrats – desperately try to cover their own assets.

Like Succession on silly pills, Knives Out paints an alternately ridiculous and infuriating portrait of the clan that has assembled in Harlan’s fabulously cluttered and appropriately gothic mansion: his daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), a real estate mogul; her randy husband Richard (Don Johnson); Harlan’s nurse Marta (Ana de Armas) and a whole lot more. ,

Once the game is afoot in Knives Out, its step is never less than light, swift and sure.