Directed By Rian Johnson

Starring – Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson

The Plot – This fresh adventure finds the intrepid detective (Craig) at a lavish private estate on a Greek island, but how and why he comes to be there is only the first of many puzzles. Blanc soon meets a distinctly disparate group of friends gathering at the invitation of billionaire Miles Bron (Norton) for their yearly reunion. Among those on the guest list are Miles’ former business partner Andi Brand (Janelle Monae), current Connecticut governor Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), cutting-edge scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr), fashion designer and former model Birdie Jay (Hudson) and her conscientious assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick), and influencer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) and his sidekick girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). As in all the best murder mysteries, each character harbors their own secrets, lies and motivations. When someone turns up dead, everyone is a suspect.

Rated PG-13 for strong adult language, some violence, sexual material and drug content

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Official Trailer | Netflix – YouTube

POSITIVES

Like its titular vegetable, this “Knives Out” sequel slices through many complex and compelling layers in its characterization and ensuing storytelling, all in the name of solidifying another edge-of-your-seat mystery that easily burns past the two-hour mark without ever even remotely feeling the weight of its wear. Johnson simply understands what makes a good mystery, mainly in the expanding motives of every shared character relationship, but also in the depth of its culprits, which alludes to many of them harboring a dual identity of characteristics that continuously shifts the way that we as an audience understand and interpret their often times strangely vibrant personalities. Spending two plus hours with a group of upper-class snobs is typically the recipe for disaster in films like these, but Johnson instills with them an unforeseen therapeutic emphasis to his own creativity and ensuing direction in social commentary, using the cleverness and familiarity of an on-screen world persisting through a pandemic to all but point fingers towards those responsible for its untimely demise. In each of them, we come to meet a politician, an influencer, a tech wizard, and a celebrity, to name a few, and while the depiction of their friendship is initially presented as lifelong, the inescapable emphasis of its reality when illustrated with life-threatening pressure conveys the ages old adage of no honor among thieves, with each of them lacking civility or honor to each other when the chips start to stack against them. This affords the remarkable ensemble, even with some surprise cameos of its own, to shine bright like a diamond in extensive consistency, but as especially the case with the trio of Craig, Norton, and Monae, they take their portrayals to a completely different level. Monae merits the tenacity and internal fire burning deep within her in the simplest of looks, hypnotizing the camera with windows to the soul that conveys the pain and agony of what could’ve been, and with Norton’s millionaire mogul Miles Bron being the stirrer to such suppression, affords him an uncanny Musk to another real-life billionaire who has recently come under fire in the tabloids for his own lack of humanity to those closest to him. Then there’s Daniel Craig who once again dazzles as the world’s best detective, Benoit Blanc, whose unconventional southern drawl unfairly sets an air of prejudice to his remarkable intelligence, with Craig’s deposits of vibrant personality sifting through his character’s urgency and excitement to settle a case for the first time in years, due to the confines of the aforementioned pandemic distancing him from crime scenes. The film is also benefited by technical merits that even manage to surpass the original, with the lush photography from Johnson’s resident cinematographer Steve Yedlin, as well as the score from Rian’s brother Nathan, evoking a 60’s cinematic sense of globetrotting that can be found in spy thrillers of the respective age. This distinct personality is further enhanced by the movie’s many awards deserving editing schemes, with vintage instances of in-scene transitions and overriding conversation between characters dissected with a trio of frames simultaneously that gives the presentation a flare to match its compelling breed of storytelling. Finally, and most importantly, the script is blessed with an abundance of humor and suspense, juggling each of them consistently without sacrificing the effectiveness of one over the other. When the film subscribes to the dramatic, it feeds into the claustrophobia of the setting and the psychology of the characters, but when it inscribes much-needed levity, the humor is of the spontaneous variety, with punchlines coming later than expected in the setup, but the kind that maintain a pulse of connection to the audience, nonetheless.

NEGATIVES

Similar to “Knives Out”, the script withholds vital information of interaction in the many pawns involved until it’s absolutely needed to unravel the big mystery, and while this idea worked remarkably well in that previous installment, here the execution isn’t as seamless. For starters, the duration of its appearance takes around 40 minutes of the film’s 132-minute run time, deducing progression in the current narrative for backstory that, while pivotal to the conflicts, resonates all the more convoluted with each passing minute. To be fair, I wasn’t confused in what the flashback aspects were conveying to me, but rather alienated by how much information it was laying at my feet at once, leaving it feeling long-winded in ways that could’ve easily been hyphenated for summarization, but also urgent in taking so much time away from the current day narrative at the moment it was just beginning to take shape. In addition to this, the ending, while memorable and irrefutably impactful, requires a bit more convenience to sell its believability than I would’ve preferred. Certain characters spontaneously change their morals without reasoning, plot devices aren’t duplicated in case of destruction, rich people don’t have cameras in their million-dollar mansions, and explosions come and go with about as much influence as a cloudy day. On top of this, justice does come to the culprit, but we don’t get to experience the extent of it, leaving the proof of the pudding assumptive when clarity in depiction is needed for the big payoff.

OVERALL
Though falling a step flat in its comparison to “Knives Out”, “Glass Onion” is still a more than worthy sequel to a franchise that is single-handedly returning the whodunnit? subgenre to its glory. With charismatic turns from a gifted ensemble, as well as Johnson’s own commanding direction, which has never been better, the peeling of its layers unravels with ease, transcribing the best in entertainment value while making several compelling observations about the world and the people who continuously pull its strings.

My Grade: 8/10 or B