All the Old Knives (2022)

All the Old Knives (2022)

4/10

Starring

Chris Pine

Thandiwe Newton

 

Directed by Janus Metz Pederson

 

The story was flat, and the leads lacked the needed chemistry to carry out a dialogue-driven thriller. How I managed to maintain interest in such a convoluted plot is an applause to my strength. The movie is based on a spy thriller novel of the same name by Olen Steinhauer, who also wrote the screenplay.

I’ve seen many failed attempts at something smart, and this is one of them. I think the movie got so high on its own desire to have a twist ending that it lured me into thinking this long talk with flashbacks here and there was the one thing I was missing in my cinematic history. Then I recall movies like The Big Kahuna (1999), and I know this has been done better in many other movies before this, and I believe many others after it. The movie is a dialogue-driven spy thriller dealing with a case of espionage and turning the tables on who did it.

The odd thing I felt was missing in this movie is the failed attempt to ignite chemistry between the leads, Henry (Chris Pine) and Celia (Thandiwe Newton). Even though the story was okay at times, I wondered how the director didn’t see that the chemistry was dying the longer the two spent talking.

The movie starts with a terrorist attack on a passenger plane. The tragedy that followed led to the case being investigated deeply to see how such a thing could happen. It was discovered eight years later, from an interrogation, that the only way the plane hijacking could have been done was with the aid of an inside job. The CIA sends Henry to interview Celia, who is suspected to be the mole.

Henry and Celia used to be lovers during this event, but she left him after the attack and has since moved on, married, and had children. The movie primarily takes place in a restaurant, where Henry and Celia talk about the past and what happened on the day of the attack.

After the long wait for the movie to end, I did not get enough satisfaction from the twist or the surprise elimination of the person responsible for helping the terrorists carry out their plans. Movies today try so hard to cram too many things into the hours they have to get their movie done. This results in movies like this one, with a great idea, but the simplicity of just making it work is removed. What’s added in its place are needless twists and turns, forced sexual encounters, and characters who agreed to do the movie but have no chemistry with one another. This makes you wonder if they skipped the screen-testing stage.

You can catch this movie on Amazon, but it’s better if you don’t.