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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Leslie Felperin

The Knife review – audaciously taut film about police encounter is intense drama of mutual suspicion

Charged with tension … The Knife.
Charged with tension … The Knife. Photograph: Signature Entertainment

Here is a compact drama that twists itself like a tourniquet over 81 minutes, as a bad situation turns into a catastrophe for an ordinary American family.

Late one night in an unnamed city, construction worker Chris (Nnamdi Asomugha, also the film’s director and co-writer) finishes a DIY project in his own home and sinks a beer or two. He takes a couple of pills before checking on his two young daughters Kendra (Amari Alexis Price) and Ryley (Aiden Gabrielle Price), who have been sneakily pretending to be asleep. Then he gets into bed with wife Alex (Aja Naomi King) for a chat and a soon-abandoned attempt to have exhausted marital sex while their infant baby sleeps next door.

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