Enjoyable "who done it" mystery worthy of a few Oscar nods

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2019)

This is the type of original film that I like to see come out of Hollywood, and it's a shame there aren't more original films of this quality being made. It's worthy of Oscar nods for Best Picture, Writing (Original Screenplay), and Film Editing. With that said I rate it a 7 (definite rent, might watch it again, easy to recommend to others) for a few reasons. First, I think the replay value on Knives Out is fairly low after you've seen it once due to the fact that it's a "who done it" mystery film. Once you know "who done it" and the various twists and turns involved, I'm not so sure it's as riveting with repeated viewings. Second, despite a star studded cast the only performance that impressed me was by Ana de Armas as the sympathetic Marta. I'm not sure if Daniel Craig's supposed to have a cajun accent or a more standard southern accent, but whatever it is it's not very good. His detective character is very well written though, so I was able to tolerate the accent. Chris Evans does a nice job of playing the unlikeable rich and spoiled grandson even though he only seems to show up for the last third of the film. Michael Shannon, and Christopher Plummer are always impressive and are solid in their limited screen time, but Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette seem almost non-existent. I had a little trouble with Detective Blanc adopting Marta as a sort of Dr. Watson, and Marta's illness for lying seems a little too convenient for the story, but everything else about the screenplay and editing is so tight that I was able to overlook those two items as me just nitpicking. Definitely check out this movie, it's one of the best films I've seen in 2019.