Knives Out

 Many of the Poirot movies always end up with him, played by a Brit with an exaggerated French-Belgian accent (think David Suchet and Peter Urnistov), magically reaching his eureka moment and solving the most impossible of crimes. A strangely cherished childhood memory is one where, on a wet, rainy day in Wales, I watched Evil Under the Sun on ITV and the image of a man in black speedos is implanted in my memory that it’s the only thing I really remember. about the film. 

The staple Agatha Christie, ensemble crime movies have a certain formula. There is the victim, the numerous culprits who all have a motive whether its greed, vengeance, love, jealousy, rage and a wily, old fox whose brilliant mind finds the most minute of clues. This Poirot like role, which has been played by Kenneth Branagh and John Malkovich of late, is played in delightfully theatrical style by Daniel Craig who has fun adopting this cartoonish southern drawl which suits his character’s eccentric style.

Craig has so much fun, as do a lot of the cast who have a blast playing their broad caricatures. Most of them are given a notable characteristic and the performers enjoy working with material that’s packed with moments of melodrama and comedy that allow them to just enjoy playing their characters. It’s this clear pleasure of working on such a fun film that manages to radiate itself from the screen and allow the audiences to enjoy in trying to guess when the next twist will come. Like the best who-dunnits, the clues are presented tantalisingly before us so when the final reveal is made, it’s a satisfying one (especially when you’ve accidentally clocked the truth).

As smartly written the film is the performance of Ana De Armas is key. Like Cleo in Roma, Marta is never truly part of the family. Her immigrant status makes her an outcast in the Thrombey family. Whilst some are civil to her, the majority of the family either ignore or place her on the spot during an immigration debate (often changing her nationality each time they reference it). It’s only Harlon (Christopher Plummer) who treats her as an equal, almost like a friend and close companion and it gives the film someone for us to get behind against the terrible family. Ana De Armas carries this role really well and her relationship with Harlon (who easily could have been presented as an evil authoritarian figure) is generally quite poignant.