This was not the way I expected this film to go, I was expecting a classic murder mystery, but to watch this and have almost the mystery solved from the audience’s side versus watching the detectives hunt down clues was really interesting and added a whole new dynamic that I did not expect.

Knives Out follows the murder mystery of Harlan Thrombey, a wealthy novelist who writes murder mysteries much like Agatha Christie back in the day. He is found dead one morning with a cut to the throat by his nurse yet despite everyone believing this to be a suicide, a detective is anonymously bought in to find out the official story as he believes there is foul play at work. As the film goes on we get to meet the family of Harlan and the parts they play in it all, as well as the sudden shock that Harlan actually left all of his assets to his nurse and left his family with nothing, and how easily that could be the alibi for his murder.

It’s also interesting that we as the audience find out about halfway through what happened the night of the murder and what really happened with Harlan and his nurse, and so while you’re watching the detectives trying to solve this murder mystery, as audience members we believe we already know what happened because we’ve already seen it played out from recollection. It’s really fascinating to have that element because so often in murder mysteries you only find out what happened when the detective does, so to have something on the detective and being able to see the little Easter eggs and subtle moments throughout the film that we wouldn’t notice if we didn’t know who the supposed murderer was, was really exciting and definitely added to the mystery of it all.

I did find in some ways the ending a little lacklustre, however mulling it over since watching it does make a lot of sense and was a good way to tie up the murder mystery. My only other issue was Daniel Craig’s accent being southern American, it just felt very cliche and not very well done. I think if they bought in a British detective it could’ve been really interesting but unfortunately creative choices were made and, for me at least, they weren’t the best choices that could’ve happened.

Despite my small issues with this film I did enjoy it. It didn’t feel too long as there was always something going on and I feel the added inclusion of the audience knowing what happened before the detective really helped keep that runtime exciting and not feel like it dragged on at any point. I would recommend this film to people who like murder mysteries or want something different to try as it is very interesting. However I don’t understand with the recent news that there will be a sequel how that will work, because everything is tied up in such a great little bow and, unless they kill off someone else in the family or find a whole new family to work with, I just don’t understand how a story can be continued from where it left off.

What do you think of Knives Out?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding