Movie Review: Stay Sharp

“Knives Out” is a mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson.  All sorts of eminent actors are in this.  Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Toni Collette, and Christopher Plummer are part of the cast.  I guess I should mention Michael Shannon as well.  It seemed to be a bit of a spoof as well.

Craig plays this famous private detective with the unlikely moniker of Benoit Blanc who is asked to look into the gruesome death of very successful mystery writer.  Blanc .is at first the silent observer who is privy to the interviews the police are conducting into the dubious and shifty family members.  The only trustworthy soul is a nurse to the old man, played by Plummer, who has the inconvenient affliction of vomiting anytime she attempts to lie.

The movie takes a bit to get going, and the story doesn’t unfold in the most linear fashion.  Flashbacks are employed quite liberally.  In spite of this being a bit of a spoof of some classic murder mysteries, the puzzle at the center of this piece is actually pretty intriguing. Blanc turns out to be a wonderfully eccentric sleuth, although the accent Craig chose to employ was a little hard to identify.  I wasn’t actually sure if Blanc actually knew what he was doing, however he did end up being a lot sharper and more engaging than was first apparent to me.

It was pretty cool to see Don Johnson on the big screen.  It just seems a while since I have seen him in anything all that significant.  The cast over all was quite good, even the ones with whom I was less familiar.

Although I had to muster a bit of patience to get used to the style of how this story would be told, I ended up enjoying this quite a bit.  I think it would be fun to see Craig pick up the strange accent again as Blanc solves another case or two on the big screen.  Since Craig has confirmed that he is done with the James Bond franchise after the next upcoming film, a different sort of crime fighter could pique his interest.  Maybe Rian Johnson has another case in which to engage the services of Benoit Blanc.