This post represents the entire Trilogy.
There are many stories of filmmakers who love Murder Mysteries and the attempts that are made with a variety of results. At best, these films dip their feet in the water of Agatha Christie and pull up the elements they like best. This includes the recent Poirot films by Kenneth Branagh, where A Haunting in Venice is a perfect example of the most you can expect when things are working. Christie herself would workshop ideas in short stories, plots that involve clever disguises, multiple murderers and perfectly faked moments of death that give the killer a perfect alibi. With the Knives Out Trilogy – and I do hope there are many more to come – Johnson wonders what an Agatha Christie story would be if she was aware of her popularity. Like a great comedian, you come for the hits while wanting to be surprised by something new.
Through the character of Benoit Blanc, a detective confident in his ability to solve any mystery while appearing baffled by the puzzle he’s presented with, Johnson gives the genre new ideas and surprises. With the original film, the solution of the initial mystery is shown early in, suckering you with the real murder that happens quite late into Blanc’s investigation. Glass Onion, the most playful of the three, confuses the issue of who the intended victims and killers are, resetting the entire story halfway through. Wake Up Dead Man presents a classic “Locked Door” mystery, adding a load of surprises in the final third to where you can’t believe what you’re seeing, but in the end it all makes perfect sense. I usually like to see a filmmaker grow and stretch themselves over a career, but I’d make an exception for Rian Johnson. He is the modern master of the Mystery genre, and I want to see as many of these as he can create.
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