Knives Out (2019)

"Physical evidence can tell a clear story with a forked tongue," our hero assures us early on in Knives Out, and the layered explanation the film provides for our mystery supports this assertion.

As is always the case with deception, it starts in the dialogue. The characters, sat against a backdrop of an array of knives, give their own variations on Harlan and the family dynamic, all of them inaccurate or incomplete. Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, is keenly perceptive of this fact. After his first round of interrogation, he confronts Harlan's maid Marta, played by Ana de Armas. Here, dialogue takes on a new function as Blanc asks with idiomatic peculiarity whether Marta has "a regurgitive reaction to mistruthing." When prompted to lie, Marta is unable and instead vomits. While the words of the other characters create a labyrinth, Marta's gut reaction tells a more direct story.

An additional layer is added when the circumstances of Harlan's demise are revealed. Having moments ago been engaged in banter, with Harlan accusing the gentle Marta of "elder abuse" for beating him at a game, the mood rapidly shifts. When the horrifying implications of a medical miscalculation become apparent, we see Ana de Armas convey a quick escalation from complete calm to total panic. The single person who cannot lie is at the center of Harlan's death.

Things are further complicated when Harlan leaves all his wealth and possessions to Marta in an isolated act of wealth redistribution. His family had only ever taken from him; Marta earned his affection through work and care. Despite providing poetic justice, it complicates things for Marta as suspicion and anger are now directed toward her.

Blanc realizes that he and Marta are both being fed incomplete information, with everything having been orchestrated by the same person. He not only identifies the guilty party in Ransom, played by Chris Evans, but goes further and is able to exonerate Marta of the mistake resulting in Harlan's death. The many layers of explanation were fragments of truth told through the forked tongue of Ransom.

Earlier in the film, Harlan unknowingly makes a point with a double-edged blade. Harlan remarks upon the similarities between himself and Ransom, living dangerously and being unable to discern a stage prop from a real knife, using the latter to make his point. Ransom proves this to be so when he reaches for a knife with which to attack Marta, only to find it is a false one. Harlan may have flattered Ransom in comparing himself to him, but in doing so he correctly predicted Ransom's downfall.

When Blanc went searching for the truth with Harlan's family, all he found were self-serving lies. In Marta, he saw someone physiologically opposed to deception. Blanc even admits to having known Marta was involved but remained confident in her innocence. Blanc restates to Marta what Harlan wanted to express materially: "You're a good person."

With a fresh and eccentric detective, a star-studded cast, and dialogue that almost always hits the mark, the mystery in Knives Out will leave the viewer saying: "It makes no damn sense... It compels me though."