On the poster of "The Knife Out of the Sheath", the rich novelist and the head of the family Haran (Haran) sits in the middle, and his family and the great detective Blanc (Blanc) stand behind him, creating a kind of classical reasoning The charm of the stage play.
This film is also like the message conveyed to us by the poster. There are many characters but distinct personalities. The lighting and performance present a stage play style. There are some stories hidden behind each person. As the plot unfolds, the truth gradually emerges. .
This movie is a typical classic reasoning suspense movie (whdunit), that is, amateur or semi-professional detectives promote the development of the story, constantly giving clues to the audience, and letting people think about "who is the criminal". Although this is not a basic reasoning that focuses on "trick" design, and the modus operandi is not amazing, but the director relies on his solid foundation to tell a wonderful story full of reversals but not so brainstorming.
Director's intention
The director has been an Agatha fan since he was a child. Agatha's mystery is like "delicious food" to him. As the story advances in the film, the director continues to give part of the truth, providing a "pseudo-all-knowing" perspective, and the rhythm is tight, allowing the audience to follow the detective to ponder what the suspect is and who is the murderer.
The more rigorous and solid script, the well-performed performances of the actors and the good rhythm of the story advancement, make the audience have a deeper sense of immersion from beginning to end. Even at the end, when the detective says to the caregiver Marta, "You have blood on your shoes at the beginning", the audience may think that the story is not over, and the truth does not stop there. This kind of meaning is still unsatisfactory, even if people walk out of the movie theater, they are still looking back at the details of the movie.
Although he is a fan of Agatha, the background of the story set by the director is quite ironic to the United States today. A glamorous rich family, but the family members secretly have ghosts, hypocrisy, deceit, greed, and selfishness; an immigrant caregiver who walks on thin ice, although poor, is kind and reliable. With hypocritical rich people on one side and sincere poor people on the other, this setting reflects the irony and joking of reality.
But the director’s main purpose for making this film is, as he himself said: “I hope it can become a roller coaster”, the audience can follow the humor and the plot, and have a thrilling and interesting experience in the cinema. This reversal and reversal movie is undoubtedly a success in creating a "roller coaster" experience.
Multiple levels of suspense
At the beginning of the movie, the servant went upstairs with a coffee cup with "my house my rules my coffee" written on it, and delivered breakfast to Harlan, the head of the family and rich mystery novelist. As a suspenseful reasoning movie, every shot should convey some information. The film shots some exaggerated and weird decorations in the old mansion, which is quite permeating. It not only hints at the occupation of the head of the family as a “mysterious novelist”, but also hints at the weird atmosphere pervading this home.
As the servant enters the room, the audience is quickly drawn into the story, because on the sofa lies the head of the family Haran, whose throat has been cut and has died.
The first layer of suspense was thrown to the audience at the beginning of the movie : Why did this mansion owner die? Is it suicide or homicide?
With doubts, we followed the detective police and detective Blanco, and got to know the relevant characters one by one. Perhaps the characters appearing in this section are too dense and the amount of information is a bit too large, but the image of the characters with distinctive personality can still give us a general understanding of this family.
Everyone's story has been reversed. At first, everyone emphasized that they "made from scratch" and that the birthday party that day was "happy and happy." But after exposing each other, we immediately discovered that these family members, who pretended to be self-made, had exposed their dependence and even hatred of the rich novelist in a private conversation with Harlan that day. On the day of the birthday party, every key person had an argument with Haran.
Linda's husband Richard had a dispute with Harlan over the derailment. Harlan said: "You go and tell her, or I will go"; Ransom played by the US team and Harlan There was a dispute over the will and was heard by Jacob, who was squatting in the toilet and playing with his mobile phone. Harlan had a dispute with his daughter-in-law Joni. Because Joni took two copies of her daughter’s tuition at the same time, Harlan decided to sign her the last check. He would never give her money again; Harlan told his son Walt, who helped him run the company, that he didn't need to continue to run his own book, he could start his own business.
At this point in the story, we must take it for granted that in this complicated intrigue, someone must have designed to kill Haran because of a grudge, and the possibility of "suicide" is almost completely ruled out.
But the story immediately reversed for the first time: Harlan’s caregiver Marta, who seemed the least likely to be a murderer among all the characters on the stage, missed and "killed" Harlan because he took the medicine bottle by mistake. .
The development of the story seems to be beyond the scope of common sense. According to Marta's account, when he learned that he had been injected with a lethal dose of 100g of morphine, what Haran thought of was to make an alibi for Marta. For this reason, he even wiped his neck.
Seeing this, the second layer of suspense surfaced: Will Marta be able to smoothly get rid of the suspect's identity as Haran wished? Why did Harlan help Marta at such a high price?
Detective Blanco launched an investigation in the mansion. When he walked to the lawn on one part of the manor, a baseball was thrown out, heralding a turning point in the plot. He met Marta, a caregiver who would vomit when he lied.
On the night of the incident, when Marta returned home and sat next to her mother, the camera showed a drop of blood on her shoes. Blanco chose Marta as his assistant to detect the case, I think there are two reasons. First, Marta’s physique that would vomit when she lied made it easier for him to distinguish between true and false; second, as Blanco said at the end of the film, he noticed the blood on Marta’s sneakers at the beginning, and he was convinced that Marta Ta and the case are inextricably linked.
Marta tremblingly executes according to Haran's exoneration plan. Although she used magnets to destroy the track of the surveillance tape, stepped on the footprints on the trail, and threw away the wooden boards made by the dog, she still left clues, such as the dirt on the hallway stalls, and the detectives found climbing upstairs. The dark window of her, the grandma who saw her climb down, and the wooden board that was once again made by the dog. Among these "evidences", the two most important things were not in her hands, namely the missing bag containing the drug, and the blood test report that could prove that Haran was overdose of the drug.
As the plot developed, the third layer of suspense appeared: Who took the blood test report? What is the purpose of this person? Who hired detective Blanco?
Marta instinctively wanted to get rid of the crime, and went to the appointment to get the autopsy report. In the horror laundromat, she had the opportunity to "kill people", but she did not choose to do so.
In the end, Marta decided to make the "truth" public, and the story seemed to be over. Just as the audience watched Marta about to confess the facts and give up her inheritance in front of a family, the baseball that represented a reversal appeared again. The detective behind him opened the blood test report and hurriedly prevented Marta from "surrendering". Since then, the plot has reversed again. While the audience breathed a sigh of relief, the fourth layer of suspense appeared again: Who is the murderer?
As Detective Blanco said, this case is like a doughnut. You thought you filled the hole in the middle, but it didn't. The successive levels of suspense constantly throw new questions to the audience, making people eager to get close to the truth.
Guide the audience's emotions and create a "roller coaster" of emotional ups and downs
This movie, which does not win by "ingenious tricks" or "big scenes", wins because of the superposition of suspense and the guidance of the audience's emotions.
In this intriguing family, Marta is a cordial character, which has won Haran's absolute trust. Moreover, her "spitting up when she lied" traits made the audience more agree with her kindness and honesty. The director took advantage of the "empathy" that the audience had towards Marta, and mobilized the audience's emotions. We couldn't help but sweat for Marta and wondered whether she could escape as much as Haran expected. ?
The audience is like sitting on a "roller coaster", always squeezing sweat for Marta. When they see her flaws, they are worried, and when they see her exonerated, they are relieved. Once the audience's emotions are mobilized, this is no longer just a cold case. This "sense of participation" is also an important reason for the appeal of this film.
What is the truth?
At the end of the film, Marta stands on the second-floor terrace, holding a coffee cup with "my house my rules my coffee" in the posture of the owner, and smiles weirdly, which seems suspicious. Some people even asked whether Marta's description of the day Haran died was a lie from beginning to end? Could it be that she deliberately created the illusion of Harlan's "suicide" after she panicked that she missed the wrong medicine?
However, the blood stains on the sneakers were there when she came home early that morning and sat next to her mother. If she was a murderer, she should pay attention to cleaning up the blood stains and destroying the evidence.
So I think there is no more "truth" in this movie, what is given in the movie is the truth.
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