Knives Out : A mind-bending thriller

The crime-mystery film - Knives Out, written and directed by Rian Johnson, first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019. Later in November, the movie was released worldwide. 

Rian started his career with a movie of the same genre - Brick, in 2005. After Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), he went back to his roots and paid homage to the famous detective novel writer Agatha Christie through Knives Out. 

This movie revolves around a renowned crime novel writer, Harlan Thrombey, played by Christopher Plummer, who was found dead inside his study in the attic the day after his 85th birthday.

Watch the trailer of "Knives Out" here 

At first glance, it looks as if Thrombey committed suicide by slitting his throat. But the famous private detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, enters the scene just before the police were about to announce the death as suicide. But nobody knows who hired Thrombey. Even the detective himself does not know who hired him; he received an envelope full of money and a paper cutting off the death news prior to the assignment.

The murderer can be anyone from the family. The prime reason for the death is suspected as Harlan's vast amount of property and liquid assets, which would be distributed among the family members as per his will.

Some family members have a strong motive to commit murder. It could be Harlan's son-in-law, Richard Drysdale, played by Don Johnson, who was threatened by Harlan before the birthday party.

The next suspect is Harlan's youngest son, Walter "Walt" Thrombey, played by Michael Shannon, who was the CEO of Harlan's publishing company. Harlan wanted his son to do something on his own rather than just be a caretaker of his father's work. On the night of the birthday party, Harlan fired his son from the publishing company.

Another strong suspect is for Joni Thrombey, played by Toni Collette, who is the widow of Harlan's eldest son Neil Thrombey. She has been living on an yearly allowance from Harlan. At one point, Harlan found out she was stealing money from him. So, he wrote the last check for her on his 85th birthday and told her he would stop paying allowances from now.

The last suspect, but not the least, is Ransom Thrombey. He is the black sheep of the family - the grandson of Harlan. He has an argument with Harlan on the night of the party. Ransom storms out from the party after an incident takes place. 

All the family members, other than Harlan's nurse Marta, played by Ana de Armas, have the motive to kill Harlan for money. Marta has no apparent motive to murder him. She also has a condition where she cannot lie without vomiting - described as a "regurgitative reaction to mistruths" by the detective. 

Surprisingly, within the 40 minutes of the movies, viewers will see major progress in the death investigation of Harlan. However, the movie is more than two hours long. So, what takes so long?

Even then, there are three questions that would mess with the viewers' minds - who hired Benoit Blanc, who murdered Harlan Thrombey and how did the murderer execute the crime?

But, the most crucial question remains - was it really a murder? 

You have to watch to find out. 

Knives Out received a rating of 8/10 on IMDB and 97% in Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes.