The morning after the celebration of the 85th anniversary of the famous author of crime novels Harlan Tromby, the hero of the occasion is found dead. It is obvious suicide in person, but the police, according to the protocol, interrogate all members of the family present in the mansion, although private detective Benoit Blanc is more interested in this matter. That same morning, he received a cash envelope from an unknown person and an order to investigate Harlan’s death. You do not need to be an experienced investigator to understand that everyone embellishes their relationship with the deceased head of the family, but Blanc gets a real gift – the nurse of the deceased, who physically cannot stand the lie.
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Without extra water, “Get the Knives” is a very cool movie, surprising far more than you might expect. In the plot, acting and semantic context, it works as powerful as it seems to be possible at all: a star on a star, a twist on a twist, a reference on a reference – you simply dig in all this luxury. The ingenious Ryan Johnson, who invented, wrote and put on this whole fascinating attraction, incredibly delicately balances between playing a good game in the detective genre and laughing at the clich?s and stereotypes that are typical for him.
And to do this, namely, to revolutionize the established in the genre, is not a novelty for the director. The notorious “Last Jedi filmed by him act in the same way: a new reading breaks the canon almost 180 degrees. And if in this case Johnson decided to play with fire, encroaching on the sacred, then in the situation with the classic British detective the risks were much less: the genre is going through hard times and a fresh look came in handy.
Taking off his hat to Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe and, probably, other respected writers, the director completely immerses the captivating atmosphere of a certain antiquity and aristocracy. The house, attire, and other surroundings seemed to be just waiting to be shoved into some good detective story. And then everything goes according to the patterns: there is a murder pretending to be suicide, a galaxy of relatives, each of which, as is usually the case, is suspected, and has a tooth on the deceased, and along with them a whole cabbage of names that you freely associate with one or another Hollywood face after painfully familiar prologue in the form of a dialogue between a policeman and another “saddened brother, matchmaker, etc. The unfolding performance looks extremely amusing due to the non-linear narrative, slipping unobtrusive comedy and, to tell the truth, talented artists such as Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Tony Collett and Don Johnson.
When the toggle switch of the genre turns on to full, the degree of interest only increases. Chamberness is replaced by wide streets, rational conversations for the “best pursuit in the history of cinema, and dramatic episodes with jellied laughter. A new look touched not only the plot component, but also some actors who play the actual antipodes of their famous images here: the right Captain Chris Evans gives way to a sharp-tongued major, the always stunning Ana de Armas turned into an inconspicuous immigrant (reincarnated, by the way, brilliantly), and the permanent stone physiognomy of Daniel Craig put on a mask to the extent of a comic detective, completely decoupling the enticing viewer. If you are curious to learn about the ideas you have, then you will not be disappointed: the author speaks about migration issues without too much edification, about laziness to create something original, his own, about the complexity of family relationships, about the duplicity and artificiality of people (specifically capitalists) who are ready bite off your hand during an attempt on their denyuzhku and at the same time smiling in the absence thereof, etc., etc.
“Get the Knives” is a real gift at sunset of the year: a smart, relevant, funny and insanely exciting piece with a decent number of unexpected turns, the increasing frequency in the final of which makes this part of the film truly unforgettable and impressive. Bravo, Ryan Johnson, we look forward to your next tasty experiment, which is the best proof that innovation in cinema is alive!
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision + HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Subtitles
English SDH, Spanish
