Yes I\'m glad someone points it out. I didn\'t watch the movie but I\'m avoiding it because Rian Johnson\'s probably going to do the same thing. When I first watched the Last Jedi, back when I had little experience, I thought it was smart for subverting expectations at every turn. After watching The Brothers Bloom, also by Rian Johnson, I can see his writing patterns. He likes to play with tropes and make meta comments about storytelling itself, but these choices ultimately don\'t support the fundamentals of a good story, like having good character development.
...For what it\'s worth, without retreading my own review, I mostly agree that the biggest problem is that you had to leave the theater at a key moment.
That is absolutely NOT what the \"Magical Negro\" trope means. Like, at all.
You're right, that trope doesn't really describe what I'm talking about. I edited the review accordingly.
Due to the mutable nature of this wiki, I'm posting the aforementioned Unfortunate Implications entry here, for posterity's sake (please note that I personally do not endorse the controversial neologism "Latinx"
used in the Verge article):
- Knives Out: Marta's storyline, where her rich white employer bequeaths his considerable estate to her, his hardworking immigrant nurse, because she was a good person, has attracted criticism for leaning into the "good immigrant" myth — the notion that immigrants deserve rights and privileges because they are good and hardworking, not necessarily because they are human. Marta is so transparently perfect (to the point she is unable to lie without vomiting) that it can be argued she's less a character and more a collection of "good immigrant" traits. It also been noted for leaning heavily into issues of deportation and immigration in a way that may be offensive to Hispanic immigrants, especially considering that creator Rian Johnson is a white man who was born in America. It could be argued that Marta's mother being in poor health (and Marta wishing to avoid the stress and strain of a long trial or legal battle) could have been just as strong an impetus to cover up the supposed accidental overdose without leaning on tired stereotypes. The linked articles also note that the Running Gag about Harlan's family constantly getting Marta's ethnicity wrong merely draws attention to the fact her ethnicity is never actually identified, reinforcing the idea that all Hispanics are interchangeable.
Having watched the movie, I\'d say apart from the political implications, it makes everything seem one-dimensional/black and white.
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Subverting Expectations Again (Late-Arrival Spoiler Warning)
Ugh. I should probably disclaim that my experience with this movie was spoiled when, in the middle of the big reveal moment, I had to leave the theater due to something important. Yes, I was forced to leave at the worst possible time. I saw the rest later in a YouTube clip. But as for the movie itself.
Between this film and The Last Jedi, I think I see some tropes favored by Rian Johnson: twists for the sake of being surprising, the Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, an authority figure who looks like a self-righteous idiot whether or not they were meant to, and moralizing just barely heavy-handed enough to be grating. In fairness, some of these aspects are more tolerable in a whodunnit mystery than in an epic space opera. But the movie also... um... "subverts expectations" in ways that end up working against it.
The story is kicked off by the death of wealthy mystery author Harlan Thrombey, and Gentleman Detective Benoit Blanc investigates the scene amidst the inevitable Big, Screwed-Up Family shenanigans that ensue. Where the film first takes a left turn from usual mystery convention is that Blanc is a Decoy Protagonist for Harlan's nurse Marta. This leads to a movie more focused on characters than mystery than may be expected.
The second curveball is that Harlan's grandson Ransom who appears to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold... is actually the villain. So he turns out to be a selfish, hypocritical, Idle Rich racist... just like the rest of his family. The result is that by contrast Marta, the Latina daughter of an illegal immigrant, comes off as something of an absurdly pure and righteous protagonist who literally vomits at the notion of deceit, and inherits Harlan's entire fortune over all of his children because of her good, responsible heart. A patronizing "good immigrant" narrative, as the Unfortunate Implications entry currently describes it. Harlan comes off as an idiot who screwed up his own family and in doing so kicked off the lethally dangerous conflict; the movie's saving grace is that I suspect this might have been the intended audience reaction to him.
In typical mystery fashion, the final twist is revealed in a lengthy explanation at the end that relies on several long coincidences. This film is twisty and entertaining enough in its own right, but the more I reflect on it, the less I get out of it. My main takeaway is that it's another prime example of how being surprising and subversive isn't the same thing as being smart or worth thinking more about.
Honestly, I'm probably just salty about having to leave the theater.