Con’s Score: 4.5 Cuts
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good murder-mystery , although this is more of a suicide-mystery. Catching crims through superior technology is more the go these days than clever deduction. Writer-director Rian Johnson has taken on a massive cast of names to taken us back to an Agatha Christie tale of twists and turns, with even more twisting turns, and does it all with aplomb.
Famous crime writer, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead a day after his 85th birthday by humble Uruguayan nurse, Marta (Ana de Amas). All the evidence points to suicide, but private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is on the case and wants to re-interrogate everyone. Craig puts on a “Colonel Sanders Foghorn Leghorn” drawl and is having a great time, asking questions and smoking cigars.
In true Christie style, everyone of Thrombey’s detestable family has a motive. Richard (Don Johnson) is having an affair, and his daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) owes him some money. Their son, Ransom (Chris Evans) is an arrogant trust fund playboy, who’s about to be cut out of the will. Son, Walt (Michael Shannon), who runs the family publishing company, is about to be fired, and daughter-in-law Joni, (Toni Collette) is about to have her flow of money for daughter Meg (Katherine Langford) cut too. And his Marta has a fatal weakness – she pukes when she lies – so you know she’s the only really honest character in this.
This script is clever for three reasons. It seems to give away the mode of death quite early and seems to focus on how the murderer will escape Blanc’s deduction. (I think some people left early because of this, poor fools). Don’t be so easily fooled. The other reasons is the sheer sharp wit of the script, and these actors know how to play it – straight up, no ham on the sides. And for these productions to work, the twists have to be unexpected… and they are.
The acting from a cast this good is as you’d expect it – top class. de Amas in the lead is a true surprise; she is so heartfelt and real. Plummer and Craig are having a great time, and Johnson, Shannon, OurToni and Jamie Lee are as grotesquely funny or as threatening as needed. Frank Oz has a cameo as the lawyer, M Emmet Walsh as the security guard, and K Ellen as the silent great Nanna Wanetta elicits laughs, while even the police detectives have their moments, without over-reaching for them. And I’ve left out a few, like the masturbating Nazi-boy.
Rian Johnson has done a brilliant job keeping them all in line and giving them the words to work with. He doesn’t rely on action; the car chase is described by the detective as the “worst car chase ever” and it is. How you go from Last of the Jedi to this is beyond me. I shouldn’t forge the production design either. There aren’t any flaws in this.
You can see why so many lined up to play here. Johnson takes the genre, plays with it, respects it and raises it. It’s also a rollicking lot of fun. Johnson even has the audience laughing at a half-covered coffee mug slogan … he’s that good. Take the plunge. It’s one of the year’s best films.
Con Nats – On The Screen
