June 10, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Nnamdi Asomugha
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “The Knife” features a racially diverse cast of characters (African American, white and a few Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A black man, his wife and their two daughters are questioned by a white police detective after a white female intruder is found unconscious in the family’s home.
Culture Audience: “The Knife” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in provocative dramas that explore racial issues and legal issues in police investigations.
“The Knife” is a cautionary tale of what not to do at a crime scene and during witness interviews. This uneven but well-acted and suspenseful drama raises challenging questions about legal rights and police procedures. If people know about the movie’s synopsis but haven’t seen the movie, then it might be easy for people to immediately assume that it’s a pro-Black Lives Matter film, where black victims do nothing wrong but become crime suspects, while racist people are the only ones to blame.
However, “The Knife” avoids a lot of stereotypes that scripted movies typically have about how race plays a role in how people are policed and investigated in the United States and elsewhere. In “The Knife” (which has an ending that is sure to be divisive or will at least spark conversational debates), the characters on both sides of a police interrogation are not completely innocent. Almost all of the adults in this situation do certain things wrong and make the situation worse.
“The Knife” is the feature-film directorial debut of former NFL player-turned-actor Nnamdi Asomugha, who not only stars in “The Knife” but he is also one of the movie’s producers. Asomugha co-wrote “The Knife” screenplay with Mark Duplass. “The Knife” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. The movie takes place in an unnamed U.S. city in the 2020s, but the issues brought forth in the film are perennial issues.
“The Knife” takes place during one night in the lives of a middle-class black American family who will be seriously affected by a series of choices. The movie begins with voiceover narration from the family patriarch Christian, nicknamed Chris (played by Asomugha), saying: “When I was a kid, my grandma use to say life is full of choices. And choices lead to consequences.” Chris then goes on to say that his grandmother also told him that people have to live with the consequences of their choices, whether they like it or not.
Chris (who is 38 years old) and his wife Alexandra, nicknamed Alex (played by Aja Naomi King), are examples of pursuing the American Dream. Chris is a construction worker. Alex is a teacher of second-grade students. Chris and Alex are happily married home owners who have recently moved into a house that Chris is in the process of renovating.
Early on in the movie, Alex mentions that she’s not very thrilled that the house is in a crime-ridden neighborhood, but she supports Chris’ goal to make home improvements, presumably so they can “flip” the house later and sell it at a profit. The family has moved into the house so recently, some moving boxes are still seen inside the house.
Chris and Alex have three daughters. Eldest child Kendra (played by Amari Price) is about 11 or 12 years old. Middle child Ryley (played by Aiden Price) is about 8 or 9 years old. Youngest child Ashley (played by Aranaya Frasier) is an infant. Kendra and Ryley are intelligent and obedient children.
Between the recent move and taking care of young children, Chris and Alex are exhausted. An early scene in the film shows Chris and Alex in bed, going back and forth in changing their minds on whether or not they want to have sex that night. Ultimately, they decide they’re just too tired.
At 1:38 a.m., Chris is woken up by the sound of someone inside the house. He gets up cautiously, looks around the house, and sees a disheveled-looking, gray-haired white woman in the kitchen. She is at the sink, and her back is turned toward Chris. Later, when police arrive, it’s revealed that this woman’s name is Mary Duvall Thompson (played by Lucinda Jenney), and she is 53 years old.
Chris is naturally startled by seeing this intruder in his home. Chris sternly tells her that she’s in the wrong house and she needs to leave. The intruder doesn’t say anything and doesn’t turn around. She seems to be in a dazed stupor.
Chris’ anger then turns to concern when he sees that this intruder is either mentally unwell or under the influence of an unknown substance. He asks her if she needs help getting home. She still says nothing, but she turns around to face Chris.
The next scene shows Alex being woken up by the sounds of a scuffle happening in the kitchen. When Alex goes to the kitchen, she’s shocked to see Chris standing over the intruder, who is unconscious on the floor. A small pocket knife is lying next to Mary, who is bleeding.
Chris tells Alex that this female stranger is an intruder. Chris says he confronted this intruder, but he can’t remember all the details of why she’s now bleeding on their kitchen floor. Alex asks if the knife belongs to the woman. Chris says no. Alex does a quick check of the woman’s pulse and sees that she’s still alive.
Chris seems to be in complete shock, but he calls 911 to frantically report that a female intruder has been hurt in his home, and he gives the address. He hangs up before giving more details. Alex still has her wits about her to remind Chris that he will automatically be a suspect, unless they both get their stories straight about what happened.
Meanwhile, Kendra and Ryley have heard the commotion and arrive in the kitchen. Chris and Alex tell Kendra and Ryley that the woman on the floor is a stranger who intruded into their home and who attacked Chris, but he acted in self-defense. Kendra and Ryley are confused and upset, but their parents assure them that Chris won’t get in trouble if the police believe that Chris was defending himself against the intruder.
Alex tells Chris that based on what it looks like, Chris acted in self-defense of an intruder who attacked Chris first, and the intruder got injured during the struggle when she fell down and hit her head on the floor. That’s the story they decide to tell the police. They also decide to tell the truth that Alex, Kendra and Ryley did not witness the break-in and attack and only saw the intruder for the first time when she was unconscious on the floor.
However, two major mistakes are made that have serious repercussions. First, Alex and Chris decide to lie to the police and say that the knife belongs to the intruder, who used the knife to lunge at Chris. Second, just as the police arrive and before the police go in the house, Alex seems to panic and spontaneously picks up the knife with her bare hands and places it under Mary’s right hand, to make it look like Mary had been holding the knife before losing consciousness.
Chris has seen Alex commit this crime of tampering with the evidence, and he’s understandably annoyed and worried about what Alex did. After the police arrive, Chris and Alex speak in hushed tones so they can’t be heard by anyone else. Chris asks Alex why she moved the knife to make it look like the intruder had been holding this weapon. Alex replies defiantly, “You’re a black man in America, Chris. I’m protecting you. That’s what I’m doing.”
Anyone with common sense who watches “The Knife” will be thinking during the entire movie: “Won’t the truth come out when the knife is tested for fingerprints?” In Alex’s rush to protect Chris from being blamed, Alex seems to have forgotten that the knife would be tested for fingerprints. Most of “The Knife” is about the investigation at the crime scene, so any issues about fingerprint proof on the knife cannot realistically be dealt with during the time period shown in the movie.
An ambulance has arrived around the same time as the police. And it’s not looking good for Mary. The medical first responders say that Mary has stopped breathing. What could have been an investigation into only a breaking-and-entering crime could possibly turn into a manslaughter investigation if Mary does not survive.
The lead investigator at the crime scene is a police detective named Frances Carlsen (played by Melissa Leo), who has a very no-nonsense, “by the book” style of working. The stereotyping and police biases are shown as soon as a cop named Officer Padilla (played by Manny Jacinto) tells Detective Carlsen that “something doesn’t feel right about this family” because the family is acting nervous. Detective Carlsen tells Officer Padilla not to jump to conclusions because anyone would be nervous under the circumstances.
Detective Carlsen has a lecturing tone in how she often tells people at the crime scene that she wants to get to the truth. However, there are obvious indications that Detective Carlsen also has a conscious or unconscious racial bias. She repeatedly refers to Mary as the “victim” without any proof that Mary is a victim. Eventually, Alex shows she’s offended when she tells Detective Carlsen that Mary should be described as an intruder, since Mary came into the home uninvited and refused to leave.
Detective Carlsen decides that Chris, Alex, Kendra and Ryley will be immediately be interviewed separately at the house, to see if all four family members tell the same or different versions of what happened. It leads to some serious legal issues regarding police interrogations of children; things that police can or cannot say or do to get witnesses to reveal the truth; and people’s civil rights in the United States when being questioned by police. The movie will make viewers think about what would’ve happened differently if the racial identities of the family and the intruder were switched.
“The Knife” also shows the reality that a lot of people are ignorant of the U.S. law that says people in the United States don’t have to answer questions from police without an attorney being there during the questioning. And if people do know that they have this right to an attorney in the United States, they often don’t exercise this right out of fear, or because they think their words won’t be used against them when questioned by law enforcement. As soon as anyone agrees to be questioned by police without an attorney present, that person can be vulnerable to improper or illegal police procedures by any police officer who doesn’t do things correctly.
Although some viewers of “The Knife” will be frustrated by the things that people do wrong in this investigation, the message that “The Knife” seems to be sending is that mistakes and bad choices can be made by police and witnesses. Too often, movies and TV shows depict investigations in a certain way that never leaves room for the reality that mistakes or bad choices can be made by everyone directly involved in the investigation. People’s emotions and biases can often cloud people’s judgments, which can lead to decisions that result in something that is definitely not justice.
Although “The Knife” succeeds overall in being an emotional and riveting drama, the movie’s screenplay could have been better, in terms of how certain evidence is handled in this investigation. A criminal defense attorney would absolutely rip apart some of the things that happen in this story. However, Asomugha gives solid direction to the movie, which uses brief flashbacks that will make viewers wonder: “Does Chris’ memory loss make him an unreliable narrator or unbelievable witness?” It’s eventually revealed in the story why Chris doesn’t remember everything that happened between him and Mary.
Asomugha, King and Leo give admirable performances in this tension-filled drama that occasionally stumbles with some cringeworthy decisions made by a few of the adult characters. “The Knife” is not a movie that will satisfy viewers who want definitive conclusions. However, the knife in this movie could be considered a symbol of how people should not make assumptions about innocence or guilt by looking at things only at face value.