I thought it would make this year's Ten Best Oscar list since it seems like voters usually stretch that a bit to come up with "Ten Best" movies, but it didn't make. In more ways than one.
It's a lot like the game Clue which, in many respects, is more entertaining.
One of the worst things about Knives Out is the silly, affected, fake Southern accent put on by Daniel Craig, a Brit, who stars as the chief detective. How boring, darling. I suppose casting director Mary Vernieu has that anti-Southern attitude and could not venture South and find a real Southern accent.
The show is billed as a comedy/crime/drama, but the funny parts are mostly missing.
The story line is pretty good, and director/writer Rian Johnson was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
About mid-way through, though, when I began thinking the movie was nothing special, it veered off the beaten track and better action finally got going. Up until then, effective flashbacks carried us to the scene of the crime, most of it committed in an old mansion. (If you can figure it out, I hope you, too, are writing screenplays.)
Overall acting is pretty atrocious. All of them (save Chris Evans, who's one of the victim's sons, and K Callan, who plays the mother of the 90-something victim; yeah, right) are stilted and artificial, like what you might see on stage when the actors are tired and need a break, like more rehearsals.
Including, yes, the performance by Jamie Lee Curtis, whose spouse (the dull Don Johnson) goes a'wandering which is no wonder faced with the same boring clothes she wears day in and day out (costumer Jenny Eagan didn't do the show any favors), quite the great-grandmother with that weed hanging out of her mouth to add to her allure.
Was that baseball star heartthrob Jayson Werth up on the screen or Michael Shannon? (Compare and see what you think.)
It's amazing but Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) is still alive and well after all these years, now aged 156 or so (just kidding, Mr. Plummer!) based on the number of movies he's been in. (I tried counting them all up but the Wikipedia pages ran too long.)
While it's true that he was supine most of the time on a sofa, and almost unreal and preserved like a mummy or dummy (and those were the alive parts), ain't it grand that a nonagenarian is still in demand?
Well, honey, Ms. Callan's performance (did she say anything?) stands out, and she's no spring chick (84 last week). Ain't it great that an octogenarian (and a female at that) is still in demand? Rock on!
Speaking of, the overall show did not match the excellent score by native-born Washingtonian Nathan Johnson whose cello and extreme range heightened the experience.
Knives has little visual sex, but bad words, yes, of course. Rather de rigueur, aren't they?
patricialesli@gmail.com
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