"Knives Out"

Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is an 85 year old, successful mystery writer who is worth more money than God.  He lives in an isolated manor house out in the country where he has called his family together to celebrate his birthday.  His family consists of an assortment of ne'er-do-wells, wastrels, and ingrates among his various children, their spouses and his grandchildren.  He also has a beautiful young Uruguayan - or is she Paraguayan? -  nurse tending to his ailments and who seems to care more for him than any of his rotten family members do.  The morning after the party, Harlan is found in his upstairs office with his throat slit.  Everyone of his progeny had both motive and opportunity to do in the old bastard, but which one did it?  Oh, and did I mention that Harlan changed his will just a few days before his demise?

Enter eccentric private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) who has been hired anonymously (and just who DID send him that big wad of cash?) to help the police bring the blighters to justice.

If this is reminiscent of something out of the mind of Agatha Christie, well, I am guessing that that is exactly director/screenwriter Rian Johnson was shooting for.  The kids/spouses/grandchildren are all played with great scenery-chewing relish by, among others, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, and Chris Evans, and the beautiful young nurse, who cannot tell a lie without giving herself dead away, is played by a lovely young Cuban actress named Ana de Armas.

"Knives Out" is very stylish and great fun to wade through.  The plot twists and turns, but if you like this genre of movies, then you know that having a plot that completely makes sense is often sacrificed for the sake of the fun-and-games involved in such elaborate whodunits, and that is certainly the case here.

The Grandstander gives this one Two-and-One-half stars, and assures you that you will be entertained for the two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie if you are willing to suspend your sense of logic and just surrender to the campy fun of the whole thing.