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The butler did it, you say? In Rian Johnson’s new movie, this mothballed murder mystery cliche gets a welcome airing out.

'Clue' (1985) is a whodunit murder mystery with comedic elements. Based on the classic board. Knives Out (66,553) IMDb 7.9 2 h 10 min 2019 X-Ray PG-13 When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate, the inquisitive Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to.

Knives Out pays clever homage to British crime writer Agatha Christie while also rewriting her treatment of social class in her novels, stories and plays. The movie is set in America but the set-up is classic Christie. The wealthy patriarch of a large and unwieldy clan has died the day after a tense and argument-laden birthday party. The manner of death suggests suicide – but is it? The entire family is suspect. A will is to be read. A flamboyant detective with a French-sounding name arrives on the scene.

A non-family member is a part of the mix, and the importance given to her character reflects the movie’s attempt at weaving social commentary into a classic whodunit yarn. Marta (Ana de Armas) is the Spanish-speaking nurse of bestselling author Harlan (Christopher Plummer). Marta is unable to lie and vomits when asked to do so. This characteristic reaps rich dividends after Harlan is found dead in his study, and is especially lucrative if you ignore the niggling question about why a nurse wouldn’t seek treatment for her own peculiar condition.

Knives Out Poirot Characters

Harlan’s warring wards makes for easy suspects. His daughters Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Joni (Toni Collette) and son Walt (Michael Shannon) are polished dispensers of platitudes and shedders of crocodile tears. Harlan’s grandson Hugh (Chris Evans) is a dissolute playboy, while son­-in-law Richard (Don Johnson) has a skeleton in his closet that pops out in most spectacular fashion.

The stellar cast is toplined by a superb Daniel Craig as private investigator Benoit Blanc. The name is a hat-tip to Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot. Benoit has Poirot’s sang-froid and self-regard but also a hilariously earthy American accent – an early indication of the way in which the movie is both respectful of Christie as well as irreverent.

Several Christie devices litter Benoit’s investigation – the significance of seemingly stray remarks; the unreliability of witness testimonies and flashbacks; the small clues that add up to important discoveries; the detective who is part-conjurer and part-psychologist. Poison, Christie’s preferred mode of killing, gets a contemporary update. Harley’s mansion resembles a wealthy prop manager’s storage unit, and perhaps the most striking item on the sets is a chair made out of glistening knives that turns out to have an important cameo in this game of thrones.

The sharp writing never feels dated even though the murder mystery is resolutely old-school. The tone is light and easy, and the critique of class prejudice and snobbery cuts sharply but not deep. Household help made significant contributions to Christie’s plots, and this contemporary rewrite provides new, imaginative ways with which to regard the small army of butlers, cooks and caretakers who watched their affluent employers kill or be killed. In Knives Out, the best joke is the constant misidentification of Marta’s country of origin. Is she Paraguayan? Brazilian? That’s like asking whether Hercule Poirot was French.

While the star-studded cast alone might be enough to draw audiences into theaters for Knives Out (opening Nov. 27), the mystery at its center is what's keeping them in their seats, if early reviews are anything to go by. At its core, it's a 'whodunit' mystery, with a veritable mansion full of people trying to figure out who murdered a famous novelist. It's a premise that sounds like it was pulled right from any murder mystery novel, but Knives Out isn't actually based on a specific book. The story just feels incredibly familiar, and it owes that familiarity to some classic mystery literature and a certain cult film.

Knives Out Hercule Poirot

Like any good murder mystery, it's probably best to go into Knives Out completely blind. That way, the twists and turns that are the bread and butter of the mystery genre can feel all the more surprising and suspenseful. But just in case that's not how you operate, here's a little more context: In Knives Out, famous novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) invites his family to join him in his mansion for his 85th birthday party. But the morning after the party, they find Harlan dead. It falls to famous detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to sort through each family member's possible motives for murdering Harlan and figure out who might have killed him.

Knives Out Poirot Cast

If that premise sounds familiar, it's because it should. In a chat with Variety, director Rian Johnson cited his love of a specific author's work when developing Knives Out. 'I grew up reading Agatha Christie’s books,' he said. 'I wanted to make a whodunit for forever. Ten years ago, I had a very basic idea for this and have just had it cooking ever since.' Christie, a famous mystery novel author who published 66 mystery novels between 1920 and 1976, was the creator of Hercule Poirot, a fictional Belgian police detective who, in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, was said to be 'one of the greatest detectives of all time.' As mentioned in the trailer, detective Benoit Blanc carries a similar reputation, and the circumstances surrounding his investigations carry thematic similarities to Poirot's. As Johnson told Empire Magazine, 'Benoit Blanc has some of the elements of Poirot, in that he’s a bit self-inflated, but there’s a warmth to him which shines through with Daniel [Craig].'

Knives Out Poirot Movie

But the similarities to other beloved mysteries don't stop at Christie. The film has drawn comparisons to 1985's Clue, which was a cult classic murder mystery parody based on the board game. There, in similar fashion, a group of six people (albeit strangers, not family) are invited to a mansion for dinner. But after the host turns up dead, it's up to them to find out who the killer is before they strike again. Clue has more of a parodic, comedic tone, which contrasts with Knives Out, as Johnson notes in a chat with Vulture. 'I had to make very clear to everybody that we’re not doing Clue,' he said. 'It’s not an arch parody. It’s going to be fun and it’s going to be funny, but the goal here is to do something that has the actual pleasures of the genre.' Judging by early reviews of Knives Out, it seems he's succeeded.