by Tim Gordon
Opening with a cautionary ode: “Life presents choices, and choices lead to consequences. The choices we make determine our future. Once you make that choice, you have to accept what comes with it, whether you like it or not.” Those words aren’t just narration, they’re a warning, a moral compass The Knife keeps circling back to as every decision spins the story into darker, more complicated territory.
This psychological drama was produced and directed by Nnamdi Asomugha (in his directorial debut) and co-written by Asomugha and Mark Duplass. Starring Asomugha, Melissa Leo, Aja Naomi King, and Manny Jacinto, the film follows a young Black family throughout one harrowing night after an intruder breaks into their home, an event that spirals into a tense, mind-twisting investigation as a steadfast detective tries to piece together the truth.
When Chris (Asomugha) wakes in the dead of night to find a disoriented stranger wandering through his home, the film immediately throws its audience into his unease. There’s a fleeting moment of empathy, he assumes she’s confused, perhaps lost, but as she turns, her face half-swallowed by shadow, that sympathy curdles into suspicion. A loud thud follows, and the camera deliberately looks away, leaving the audience in an uneasy haze. It’s a clever technique at first, but one the film leans on too often, withholding crucial moments in ways that frustrate more than intrigue.
The tension spikes when Alexandra (Aja Naomi King) rushes downstairs to find the woman unconscious, bleeding, and sprawled on the floor. Chris struggles to explain what happened, and Alexandra instantly sees the danger of what she’s witnessing: her Black husband standing over an unconscious white woman in their living room. Her desperate act, placing a knife in the stranger’s limp hand, comes from a place of protection, an instinct to shield Chris from the worst assumptions. But the fallout of that choice drives the narrative into a darker, more chaotic spiral.
Asomugha’s direction is restrained and ambitious, but not always fully assured. His decision to hold shots and let silence linger sometimes creates powerful unease, but at other points, the stillness turns into drag, slowing the film’s pacing and sapping energy from key scenes. The same is true of the script, which starts with sharp tension but meanders in the second act, raising questions it never fully answers and leaving some character motivations feeling thin.
The performances do much of the heavy lifting. Asomugha brings a quiet, tightly coiled energy to Chris, though his restraint occasionally makes the character feel too opaque. Aja Naomi King is more compelling, grounding Alexandra’s choices in a mix of love, fear, and survival instinct. Their chemistry is solid, if uneven, and Melissa Leo and Manny Jacinto add texture but don’t get enough to do.
We never truly find out what happened that night, but as the callback to the film’s opening description about choices and consequences plays out, it lands on a bitter truth: we can control our sins, but not our consequences.
The Knife is a thought-provoking debut for Nnamdi Asomugha, but one that shows the seams of a first-time filmmaker. It’s intimate, unsettling, and full of ideas, but its pacing stumbles, narrative choices frustrate, and its emotional impact doesn’t always cut as deeply as it should.
Grade: C+
