An Absolute Blast

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2019)

When news broke that RenÃ©e Zellweger was cast as Bridget Jones, I remember mutterings and complaints from British critics and audiences; couldn't an up and coming British actor have been given such the opportunity? What sort of mess would the American make of the accent? Hugh Grant and Colin Firth were cast opposite her and despite the complaints and suspicions, the film was a huge hit, spawned sequels and it now seems rather quaint to think about these complaints at all.
This was in the back of mind approaching Knives Out. Director Rian Johnson directs a starry American cast (and Daniel Craig, sporting an occasionally inconsistent Southern accent) in a film he also wrote that was to be a homage to the British murder mystery in general and Agatha Christie in particular. I could imagine some of the genre most loyal fans getting uptight about an American take on British traditions, but I hadn' t heard many of these complaints - may be, Brexit and Trump notwithstanding - we're all a bit more internationally-minded now.
In any case, it really doesn't matter. Knives Out is a blast. The plot is a finely constructed work of crystalline beauty; each performance from the stellar cast is given at least a few moments in the sun; the denouement has more than one 'aha!' moment as revelations fall into place; and there are more laugh out loud moments than in many comedies, all of which occur without taking the viewer out of the moment, undercutting the drama. To cap it all, the film also works - and is clearly intended to, especially in light of the ending - as a metaphor for how immigration and precisely the sort of nationalism which turned its nose up at the thought of an American Bridget Jones; but it's not a metaphor that dominates the film, nor is it an overtly political one.
What it is, is a very, very entertaining film which has - if those who need to say yes to such things do so - the clear capacity to produce a sequel or three. It's one of those films likely to be enjoyed by people who don't go to the cinema, to be discussed over Christmas dinner (rather than the politics), to be curled up with in a couple of years in the week between Christmas and New Year.