Others have mentioned the old house might have held some secrets (it didn't). Or that it might present a more structured "Whodunit" that leaves you guessing (it didn't). Or that the main character might offer a bit of verve, cleverness or pizazz, that might have livened up the whole affair (she doesn't, at all).

I also take some issue with the director's choices in scene framing, especially in the beginning. There should have been more close-ups, and better initial intros for each character's little idiosyncrasies so we would could warm up to them. I simply don't care for how it was shot; it's terribly pedestrian. The fast, quick edits of the trailer are totally absent! There's something missing here. Todd Solondz, Tim Burton or the Cohen Brothers really could have drawn these characters out more and given the actors something real to work with.

I thought it would sparkle with a bit more witty, dark humor. It wasn't quite as funny or snappy as I was expecting it to be. Instead, it settles on delivering more of a "message" about this girl, who does good, while the others do bad.

There's also no need for Daniel Craig's poor Southern accent. He should have just done a British accent, it would have been fine and enjoyable, maybe given the film a bit more weight it seems it was shooting for, in the end, with its messaging.

Additional viewings might reveal there's more to it, but I suspect such might reveal there's less.

Let me start by saying that the film is good. It's a solid murder mystery and I'll make sure I watch Knives Out 2 when it comes out. All I kept hearing about this film was that it was hilarious and brilliant and 'so damn good' etc etc etc. I usually take these sorts of reactions with a grain of salt but, having seen the trailer and seeing how great the cast was, I bought into the hype. It looked so stylish, so compelling.I really got my hopes up, and I can't help thinking I would have enjoyed the film far more if I hadn't been inundated with so many reviews heralding it as some brilliant masterpiece.I was expecting a lot of laughs and whilst I did laugh on occasion, I didn't laugh nearly as much as I was hoping I would. A film like this would have benefited from some black humor (maybe Rian could have co-written the film wish a British comedy writer for some more quality laughs... Phoebe Waller Bridge, perhaps?)I enjoyed the scenes when the whole family was together and interacting with each other and I wish the film spent more time on them instead of opting for that ridiculous car chase and several other scenes that took me out of the whodunnit atmosphere.Overall, this film is a solid good time, entertaining, clever and well acted and written but, in my opinion, definitely doesn't live up to the hype.

This film clearly considers itself to be very clever (& classy).It is at least fairly well mannered.Clever? No.A decent episode of Columbo or Poirot(Suchet) is far more satisfying.I was glad when it finished. There's no depth to this. Kermode thinks it's a work of genius. It isn't. Was Daniel Craig impressive? No, not really.Was anything else impressive? Not at all.A decent cast which delivers almost nothing.A work of no obvious merit that's totally overblown.