Knox goes away

Just watched "Knox Goes Away" on Max directed and starring Michael Keaton. Keaton plays Knox, a hitman who receives a devasting diagnosis: he has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and has only weeks to live. So, he has to get his affairs in order before he "goes away". Soon multiple tragedies occur which require him to use the last vestiges of his intellect to ensure that his estranged son, ex-wife and his kept woman get their inheritance. The story is a bit slower than it needs to be but Keaton's descent into the "brain fog" of dementia is convincingly sad. Solid support from Al Pacino as Keaton's friend and James Marsden as Keaton's son combine to create a decent, if not perfect movie. Recommended as a 7/10 - a Roger Ebert reviewer gave this one star - completely unfair in my opinion.

What a sharp movie! I really enjoyed this film! Michael Keaton really does great directing this film as well as acting in this film. Al Pacino really was fun as well. Very interesting character. The movie takes place around a contract killer that is diagnosed with a very fast movie type of dementia. Very fast moving. But he is given the opportunity to redeem himself. Which is a very crazy situation within its self. The opportunity that he is given is after his son shows up at his front door covered in blood because he kills the man who impregnate his teenage daughter he can make things right by helping is son get out of this mess he has put himself in. The film is great. It is very dark, gritty, and just overall great!

Michael Keaton has demonstrated remarkable visualization in his debut as actor-director. While most actor-directors show competence, Michael Keaton created genuine visual artistry. Although one success does not establish excellence of talent, Keaton appears to have a promising future as a director. Knox Goes Away is on par with actor-director works by Clint Eastwood, Ben Affleck, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Attenborough, Greta Gerwig, etc....

The trend toward actor-producers has been quite beneficial to the quality of product in the industry -- to maintain artistic integrity rather than completely pandering to business profit. It also invites appearances by upper echelon performers, who otherwise would decline working on a particular project. Here, the example is Al Pachino. And the result is analogous to "form follows function."

When a contract killer has a rapidly evolving form of dementia, he is offered an opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son.

His character (John Knox) has to learn to accept that his life is going to be shortened by a disease, but as his estranged son comes to him out of the blue he sees an opportunity to see right by his ex wife and son and redeem himself for the life he has led. It must be said that Keaton grabs attention in his first scenes. His acting is purely on point and he clearly has seasoned over many years.

It's quite slow paced but not to the extent that you get impatient. It's more like being given time to savour what's going on. There's no massively intrusive score to ruin the scenes either which is very welcome.

The plot has a great twist but not one that seems contrived or just there to shock. It's part of a long drawn out plan of Knox's and although it's not hard to work it out early on, it still impresses with it's simplistic but effective machinations.

There is genuine tension at times and yet you can't help think that Knox is playing this all with a dark sense of humour. It's still very poignant though that in order to redeem his past, he has to accept that he has no future. He does this gracefully and willingly and I forgave him his every sin.

A solid 7 from me for a great thriller/murder/mystery.

Only knowing Keaton from Spiderman: Homecoming, I don't he's so talented that he can direct too. He put out an incredible performance in the film. The movie deals well with both the suspense and the emotional aspects of the story, two emotions I rarely see come together, that too successfully. I misunderstood the film to an action from the trailer but I gave it a chance 10 minutes into the film and it didn't let me down.

And the best part of it all, the father role portrayed in the film, stirred so much emotion in me that I've added this to my favorite's list.

Everyone performed to their best including the son, detective, and Keaton.