Thereafter, the clue-gathering aspects of the movie wane as Marta must fight for the survival of her family: the Thrombeys threaten to reveal the status of her mother as an undocumented immigrant and “send her back,” if Marta refuses to annul the will. This profound moment in the film changes everything. The family gathers to hear the will read aloud, and they are shocked to learn that not only has Harlan cut off each of his children from his inheritance, but that the entirety of his house, resources, and $60 million is to be bequeathed to Marta. It’s not until mid-way through the film, however, that you realize how important Marta is to the narrative. And, at the center of the investigation is a second-generation immigrant, Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), Harlan Thrombey’s nurse, who is ever-present in the home and assists Blanc in his inquiries. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) works to uncover which member of the family had the motive to kill him.
When Harlan is killed on the night of his 85th birthday, an investigative team led by the flamboyant P.I. The story centers on the Thrombeys, a large New England family living off the literary success of its patriarch, the mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Little did I know that this film would flip the script on a classic murder mystery trope to create a narrative about immigrants in America, and I couldn’t have been more delighted.
It was supposed to be the kind of mindless entertainment parents sneak out to see after a long day of cooking turkey and running after kids. The trailers for Rian Johnson’s new film had given the appearance of a traditional drama centered around family politics, a quirky detective, and all the hammy retorts and nods to Clue one could imagine. Judge for yourself at a theater near you whether Knives Out is good social commentary on immigration and Latina/o identity.When my husband and I went to a late-night showing of Knives Out over the Thanksgiving weekend, we were expecting nothing more than a standard whodunit. Carlos Aguilar on Remezcla notes that, over the course of the film, " white characters can’t agree on whether family is from Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay or Brazil."
As noted above, Knives Out protagonist Marta's Latina ancestry is left vague. Some Americans, however, including President Trump, view all Latina/os as a monolithic, homogeneous group. Latina/os have great diversity in physical appearance, cultural traditions, and histories, and more. Latina/os in the United States come from many different national origin ancestries, from Mexico to Cuba to Honduras to Brazil to Peru. `the right way.' But when they discover their inheritances from Harlan’s will are threatened and that Marta has undocumented family members, they direct their animosity toward her - going so far as to frame her for Harlan’s murder and lord her mother’s status over her head." (bold added). Marta's employers are a family that includes both progressive, `New Yorker'-reading types, as well as alt-right conservatives who call Marta the pejorative term, “anchor baby." They've tolerated Marta for coming to the U.S.
Worried about her family’s precarious legal situation, she tries to melt into the background, but the murder investigation - led by the whimsical Benoit Blanc (Craig) - launches her into a glaring spotlight. from an unspecified Latin American country, and this fact consumes Marta daily. Her mother is undocumented, having come to the U.S. has inspired heated questions about how to tell immigration narratives ethically and effectively.įollowing the movie's release, many praised its depiction of undocumented immigrants in the United States, as told through Golden Globe-nominated Ana de Armas' character, Marta, the nurse and caregiver of family patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer).Īs the murder investigation of Harlan’s death unfolds, so does some of Marta’s backstory. "shows the tensions around Americans’ views of immigrants and the immigration process. The movie. Gwen Aviles on NBC News analyzes the debate generated by the movie and observes that it I found Knives Out to be a fun poke at the murder mystery genre. Let's just say that the family and staff do not always behave in the murder investigation, reading of the will, and aftermath. A satire on murder mysteries, the film looks at the investigation of teh murder of a wealthy family patriarch. Want to watch a fun holiday season movie? How about one that touches on immigration themes and issues of Latina/o identity? If so, the hit Knives Out, which is directed by Rian Johnson and stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig, and Ana de Armas (who was born in Cuba) may be just for you.
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