Nurse Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) was the last person to see mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) alive. Daughter of an illegal immigrant, she took care of the millionaire until the night of his death of an apparent suicide.
None of the Thrombeys raise their voices to distrust Marta. “You are almost family,” say relatives already thinking about the will. The veneer of benevolence breaks when the lawyer reveals that the author left his fortune to the young Latina.
The employee then becomes treated as a suspect. After all, the family “passed through many trials” to one day be rewarded with money, and that right would not be stolen by a … Uruguayan? Brazilian? Or Mexican? For the Thrombeys, Latinos are all the same.
“This is exactly the joke. It doesn’t matter where Marta is from, but the fact that they don’t know speaks volumes about that selfish, privileged family that is in the right to have everything. It is nice to represent the good qualities of the Latins”, believes Cuban actress Ana de Armas, the protagonist of “Knives Out”, Rian Johnson’s first film after“ Star Wars: The Last Jedi ” (2017).
Nominated for three Golden Globe awards, the movie opens in Brazil after surprising at the world box office with U$ 126 million (about R$ 521 million) in two weeks.
Initially, It seems a mystery in the veins of a “Whodunit?” by Agatha Christie but soon immerses itself in a suspense comedy about immigration, white privilege, and social differences.
“I started writing the plot ten years ago and the idea of having an immigrant working for a wealthy family came up before the [2016 election, won by Donald Trump]. All the unpleasant things that came after that helped to add substance to the plot,” Rian Johnson says.
In addition to being inspired by the classic detective stories of the 1970s, the filmmaker drank from English sources, such as “Gosford Park” (2001), to shape the entire spectrum of the current American elite in the Thrombey family.
Walt (Michael Shannon) controls his father’s editorial empire, but wants to surrender to Hollywood. Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), the other daughter, became a realtor with her husband, the prejudiced Richard (Don Johnson). Ransom (Chris Evans) is a playboy who had a serious fight with his grandfather during the party. And Joni (Toni Collette) is a failed widow who lives off her father-in-law’s allowance.
“The suspects represent the top and bottom of the pyramid. It is important to recognize parts of yourself in them to create real characters, not just wrappers so that the viewer can point the finger,” says Johnson, who had a great ally to get the film’s budget: Daniel Craig.
The star of the “James Bond” franchise was the first name to sign. “Such good scripts don’t exist anymore. The story deals with urgent themes and is fun, does not rub anything in the viewer’s face”, remembers the actor, who lives the hilarious southern detective Benoit Blanc. “He comes from Louisiana, but it is a tribute to Hercule Poirot.”
But “Knives Out” is far from being just a detective film. It subverts conventions and focuses on a cruel and fun game with the immigrant at the center of a game run by a racist elite.
“Comedy is the best vehicle for social criticism. If the situation, no matter how ridiculous, makes the audience laugh, that audience does not think it is being taught. The film doesn’t become a sermon,” Johnson explains.
