<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Rian Johnson. Starring Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Noah Segan, K Callan, Frank Oz, Riki Lindhom, Edi Patterson, Christopher Plummer

 Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes

A murder mystery with a great ensemble cast is too tempting to pass up in this age of super hero fluff. 

Starting off with a suicide that may be a murder or may not be a murder but then just may be a murder, Knives Out introduces us to the dysfunctional Thrombey family and their trusty immigrant house help Marta (Ana de Armas).

Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) has been supporting and subsidising his lazy family for years, but in his golden age he finds that his only friend is his nurse Marta who gives him his meds, talks to him, and plays board games with him. His family only want him for his money and the things they’ll inherit after he’s gone. A day after a family party, he is found dead, with his throat slit and the knife in his dangling hand. But someone doesn’t think it’s suicide so they anonymously hire gentleman super sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) who assists the police in their interrogations and investigations of this Agatha Christie-type murder.

Eccentricities and foibles mix together wonderfully as the cast of characters behave like most families do, only here there’s plenty of exaggeration and drama.

The first half of Knives Out is a tad slow and dry, but it soon picks up nicely, flashing backwards to show us the events of the past that have led to the events unfolding now. The suspense isn’t as taught as it should be, perhaps because we’re all spoilt on so many crime series on Netflix and TV that mystery shows like Murder She Wrote don’t have that surprise element anymore. But Knives Out manages to pull off some interesting twists even then.

Ana de Armas, Christopher Plummer, Chris Evans and Daniel Craig are wonderful in their roles. Far from the real, this mystery has elements that will make you laugh, wince and be utterly bemused by.

PS: The family dynamic and dark delightfulness of Knives out is reminiscent of Ready Or Not