Images courtesy of Relativity Media and Inaugural Entertainment
THE KNIFE—4 STARS
The title and marketing poster for The Knife, the directorial debut of former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha, are a masterful lesson in minimalism, used to maximum effect. The item itself—a half-serrated pocket knife anyone of age could buy in the sporting goods aisle of a department store—may not be as sizable as an intimidating machete or a glorious sword, sharpened and ready to hack invasive brush or enemy limbs, but it still immediately evokes danger. You’re not buttering bread with that thing. When the poster displays the knife, bloodlessly clean and symmetrically centered next to a police evidence marker, our questions and feelings of risk only increase. Following two tremendous announcements of his second talent in Crown Heights and Sylvie’s Love as an actor, Asomugha furthers his transition to Hollywood after the gridiron with this assertive and impressive debut behind the camera.
After cleaning up and coming to bed late from extra rehab work on his fixer-upper starter family house and hiding a quick nightcap beer from his wife and three daughters, a construction worker named Chris (Asomugha) awakens in the middle of the night to hear a rustling sound from down the hall. He grabs a pocket knife from his nightstand, walks slowly ahead, and discovers an open patio door. Following the noise, he finds a disheveled, older woman (veteran character actress Lucinda Janney) in his kitchen staring out the window above the sink. Mumbling softly to herself, she doesn’t hear Chris announce himself or his repeated requests that she leave his house.
Backed by a tight little musical score from composer Kyle Townsend (The One and Only Dick Gregory), the stressful situation reaches a fever pitch for Chris. The Knife coyly removes us from what happens, as it turns its attention to Chris’s wife, Alexandra (Lessons in Chemistry Emmy nominee Aja Naomi King), becoming aware of the situation and coming to the kitchen. She finds her husband breathing heavily and frozen in panic, the woman lying unconscious on the floor, and the knife precariously nearby. Chris calls 9-1-1 for an ambulance and to report the break-in. At this point, his oldest two daughters, Kendra and Ryley (newcomers Amari Price and Aiden Price), join the growing scene of trepidation.
LESSON 1: LIFE PRESENTS CHOICES, AND CHOICES LEAD TO CONSEQUENCES—At this point, The Knife reaches a crucial sequence of threat assessment thoughts and decisions, as Chris and his family prepare their united front. During an introductory voiceover to start the film, Chris’s internal monologue speaks of wisdom shared by his grandma, matching this lesson’s title. Her remembered sentiments continue:
“The choices we make determine our future. Once you make that choice, you have to accept what comes with it, whether you like it or not. And hope you don’t leave the ones you love to deal with that mess.”
While that is ominously on the nose for The Knife, the sagacity speaks to the survival mode the family is employing to face this precarious ordeal.
Along those lines, Alexandra is not shy or out of line when she calls out the facts that the body in the kitchen is a white woman and her husband is a Black man in America. Before long, the first responder, Officer Padilla (Manny Jacinto of The Acolyte), arrives with the ambulance and immediately has his suspicions. He is followed not long after by Detective Frances Carlsen from the forensics department, played by The Fighter Academy Award winner Melissa Leo. Like a true veteran who has seen more than her fair share of crime in his sketchy neighborhood, Carlsen’s eyes and ears survey the scene while methodically questioning each member of the resident family looking for a straight story. Through deft editing by Dana Congdon (The Basketball Diaries), those intentionally separated interrogation scenes of decaying composure are interspliced with the exacting background procedural activities of the police as they turn over and catalog the crime scene.
LESSON #2: KEEP AN EYE ON THE OBJECT IN QUESTION— As a slow-burning mystery, The Knife demands that audiences keep an eye on the object in question. Unlike other movie MacGuffins, we know damn well what a knife like that is capable of. Yet, in this film, the audience is granted excellent dramatic irony. We know exactly whose knife it is. We know who brought it to the crime scene. We know who last touched it and precisely how it reached its final position before the police arrived. The people who do not know those answers are Leo and the investigating authorities. The big question becomes how much unknown information is left to hold over us watching the show, a fun prospect that dangles nicely over the film.
LESSON #3: DRAWING OR UNDRAWING CONCLUSIONS— Best of all for Nnamdi Asomugha’s film, the tension creates competing contortions of sympathy and justice for those watching. The memory gap where the true fault occurred is not known. Stemming from the mounting fear coming out in Alexandra’s wakeup line of “They’ll look at us, they’ll look at her, and draw their own conclusions,” there is also a bend of bias between this seemingly upstanding minority family pitted against cops of as yet undetermined moral quality. The climax and resolution of The Knife could go either way. With the massively damning dramatic irony they hold, viewers will waver on whether or not they want the real truths to come out, and that’s a powerful draw.
The Knife’s suspense stirs from the thoroughness on display inside and outside of the film’s events. Getting involved with every character, Melissa Leo is granted an excellent showcase, prying truths from lies and pushing this plot along, proving, once again, her sizable screen presence in the right role. For her detective, specifics and details matter, and the screenplay from Asomugha and prolific writer/actor Mark Duplass masks them in a taut and efficient movie that makes the most of its single location and single night of drama, holding its secrets as long as it can and not wasting a minute before then.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1331)
