"Knife Out of the Sheath" is a suspenseful drama film directed by Ryan Johnson and starring Daniel Craig, Anna de Armas, Chris Evans and others.
As a fan of Agatha Christie, "The Knife Out of the Sheath" is Ryan Johnson's inspiration from Agatha's novels. Together with the director’s strong author style,
shows us a suspenseful masterpiece with a wonderful plot, complicated characters, and black humor at any time, revealing human nature through constant reversals. At the beginning of the film
, under the traditional reasoning drama mode, it tells the truth of the story and the murderer behind it.
, however, broke this tradition in one third, and instead directly showed the truth to the audience without reservation. It seems unexpected, but it is reasonable.
because the truth of the case is not the ultimate goal of the film. The purpose of the film is to allow the audience to see the cause and effect behind the truth and expose the unpredictable human nature through the reversal and deepening of the second half of the film. In the film
, a wealthy novelist, Harlan Slobby, was found to commit suicide in his home on the day after his 85th birthday, leaving a legacy of billions.
Detective Blanc, hired by the mysterious man at this time, also joined the case. He thinks things are not that simple. The whole movie of
exudes a strong classical atmosphere from the beginning, with a sharp, mysterious and slightly gloomy soundtrack, full of various playthings and well-designed mansions, all adding a bit of mystery to the film. The
film does not follow the confusion of other reasoning films, but is developed from the perspective of a detective.
Through the memories of the characters in the play, we can see that at Harlan’s birthday party, four people had conflicts with him.
Harlan found out that his daughter-in-law, Jonnie, took advantage of the opportunity to remit her tuition fees to her daughter, and interrupted her financial assistance;
son Walter did not respect his handling of the copyright of the work, so he dismissed his son;
Harlan discovered that his son-in-law Richard had derailed, and had a fierce conflict with him;
and his grandson Lanson had been at odds, and quarreling was commonplace.
According to the previous reasoning logic, these memories are so straightforward, and there must be a darker conspiracy behind them.
But this is where the film is first reversed. The film allows the audience to know in advance that family members are lying from the perspective of God, attracting the audience to pursue the murderer more urgently.
However, with the appearance of the caregiver Marta, even the audience with the perspective of God was caught off guard.
At this time, the film was separated from the type of reasoning and turned into a suspenseful genre of the secret behind the truth. The audience followed Marta's perspective and learned the whole process of the murder.
Harlan did commit suicide, but someone had already dropped Harlan's medicine before.
In fact, Marta has already developed the ability to distinguish the properties of medicines just by looking at the color of the medicines, but when she saw the medicine labels, she still panicked, thinking that the wrong medicine was used.
Harlan chose to commit suicide to protect Marta and meticulously helped her create alibi.
This is another reversal of the film, and reversal is far more than that. In the will, Harlan left all his inheritance to Marta, and his family could not get a penny.
I have to say that human nature is really amazing, and the direct relatives of blood are sometimes inferior to the seemingly unconnected foreigners. A lot of the ordinary warmth in life will also change in the face of money, and change in quality before the twisted human nature.
The kindness and friendliness when we are in peace is nothing but an illusion.
Marta immigrated here. Jonnie once expressed her support for immigration, but when her inheritance was threatened, she quickly joined the ranks of doing both hard and soft on Marta.
Meg is the most leftist in the whole family, and even the word "helper" will offend her. But she was also acting on the phone, trying to trick Marta's property back with tears.
This embodies leftist thinking, and in many cases it is just a tool for manipulating the weak. On the surface, it may seem friendly, but when it violates its own interests, it will reveal its true colors. It also reflects the phenomenon that many people in society speak nicely but have no actual actions. The
film also draws on the contrast between Harlan’s family and Marta to outline the current confrontation between classes and races.It seems the least serious, but the most common example is that no one in the family knows Marta's nationality.
Richard said Paraguay the first time, and Uruguay the second time, while Linda said it was Ecuador and Ranson said Brazil. The inattention of actually represents inadvertent racial prejudice. The most unexpected thing in the film
is Lanson. He was mentioned repeatedly from the beginning, but didn't appear until the middle of the film.
According to the experience of previous reasoning films, usually the most asshole character will not be the real murderer. Therefore, many people will not doubt him when watching the film. But still can't change the fact that he is a bastard.
learned of the contents of the will during the argument with Haran. He secretly replaced the medicine Marta injected Haran every day in an attempt to frame Marta and invalidate the will.
But Harlan's suicide made everything complicated.
What's even more unfortunate is that he was accidentally discovered by the butler Fran while destroying the criminal evidence. Fran became suspicious and asked his cousin who worked in the forensic center to obtain a report of Harlan's autopsy.
In fact, this report just proves that Harlan did not die from an overdose. In other words, Marta was not the murderer of Haran.
But the butler who didn't know the inside story and couldn't understand the autopsy report, thought that this was evidence of Lanson's poisoning. So, the butler sent a copy of the report to Lanson and asked him to confront him.
At this time, Lanson had also figured out the whole picture from Marta's mouth. Thinking that he had the overall picture, he first set fire to the forensic center, destroying the evidence of the nurse's innocence.
then revised the copy of the report and made a letter to blackmail the nurse, making the nurse mistakenly believe that the wrong medication was discovered.
also sent her an anonymous e-mail, leading her to the place where the butler asked him to meet. Before Marta arrived, the butler was injected with an overdose of morphine, which just happened to plant the caregiver as the murderer of the butler. When
waited for Marta to arrive at the agreed place, the butler was still alive. And the kind-hearted Marta didn't let the butler fend for himself because of fear of being exposed about the wrong medicine.
Finally, the original autopsy was found, Lanson was exposed, and the truth was slowly revealed.
can't help but feel the unpredictability of human nature, even the family around him, it is impossible to guarantee that it will not turn into a ruthless demon.
There are also hidden issues about generations.
Harlan cut off the help given to his children on his birthday, and the children seemed to lose their ability to take care of themselves. There is a word in
called "ok boomer", directly translated into Chinese is "alright, baby boomer age". But is not a stalk of the middle-aged and elderly people, but it represents the insecurity and suspicion between generations. No one can achieve substantive communication.
Then this problem cannot be solved?
Blanc said in the movie that
complexity and gray areas do not exist in the truth, but in what you do after you get the truth.
It is true that everyone in the movie has a different reaction after getting the truth, but perhaps the mentality that can really solve the problem exists in Marta.
Although she is an outsider, she is the only person in the family who really cares about Haran and can make love to him. Purposeful good deeds cannot be equated with kindness. And Marta's victory was not because of her scheming, but her kindness from the heart.
has such a detail. When taking Harlan upstairs, Marta told Harlan that she could not play with him after drinking champagne. But in fact, when someone asked her to drink, she refused with "I'm working".
But she is a person who throws up when she lied, but this time she didn't. Because she was doing it for Haran from the bottom of her heart, perhaps she didn't even realize this white lie.
Blanc once asked her, would
being kind make you a good nurse?
After watching the movie, the answer is self-evident.
may be too naive, but in the current society full of conflicts and oppositions, this is what we all need; maybe being a good person with sincerity can hurt ourselves, but it can always make the world around us a little better. As Ryan Johnson famously said in his last movie, the point of
is not to fight against what we hate, but to save what we love. In addition to the wonderful and meticulous plot and structure of the
movie,The director also put a lot of effort into the shots and character shaping. Most of the shots of the
film stayed on the shoulder scenes and close-ups, which strengthened the characters' reactions and emotions to the case. This gives actors more room to play, and the depiction of all kinds of human nature is more delicate and direct. The
film also uses a lot of black humor, such as donuts, toy knives, and allows the audience to perceive humanity in a relaxed and humorous atmosphere.
This is a test of the hearts and minds of all the characters involved in the film. In many cases, the truth and superficial facts are not important. Just like the donut curse mentioned in the film, as we fill the center of the donut, we often use superficial facts to cover up the truth and bury the attitudes and opinions of the key figures behind the truth.
This is also a rare movie in this generation. It is cynical and at the same time carrying almost naive and human hope.
Marta has saved herself time and time again with her kindness in many complexities, and won the final victory in this humanity contest. It also allows us to deeply understand that because of good humanity, there is hope!
