Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
In Netflix’s widest theatrical release to date, Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc and heads to Greece for his latest case.
Something’s afoot: Edward Norton, Madelyn Cline and Daniel Craig
The 2019 movie Knives Out was not only a critical success but also a commercial one so it was no surprise when its creator, the writer/director, Rian Johnson, announced that he would be making a follow-up again featuring Daniel Craig as the quirky detective Benoit Blanc. Indeed, now that the film is here, it comes with the description "A Knives Out Mystery" attached to its title, and that is apt enough because everybody who enjoyed Knives Out should also get a lot of pleasure from Glass Onion.
The first film was an original work that drew on Rian Johnson's love of Agatha Christie's detective novels and it is very much the same source that is the basis for Glass Onion. This influence goes beyond the eccentricity of Benoit Blanc evoking that of Hercule Poirot to Johnson writing screenplays which deliberately echo the ingredients that Christie put into her books. Furthermore, because Johnson’s love for those books also involves respect, what results is affectionate pastiche that never becomes parody. He is also taking a different approach from those who have made modern adaptations of Christie novels for television and have chosen to spice them up with extra sex and gore. Johnson may set his stories in the current day and ensure that they belong to that setting, but he keeps the tone in line with that of Christie herself. Both Knives Out and Glass Onion are entertainments happy to function with a certificate no higher than “12A”.
The second adventure for Benoit Blanc finds him on a Greek island where a billionaire – that's Miles Bron played by Edward Norton – is hosting a weekend gathering for his closest friends. They consist of the fashion designer and former model Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), the scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), an influencer named Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) and a senator, Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn). Bron is quite happy that Birdie should be accompanied by her assistant, Peg (Jessica Henwick), and that Duke should arrive with his girlfriend, Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). On the other hand, he is not expecting to see his former business partner, Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe), who had been pushed aside and had unsuccessfully sued Miles for denying her key role in developing a new transformative hydrogen fuel that he now plans to put on the market. Similarly, when Benoit Blanc meets his host, Miles denies that he ever invited him – a fact that immediately raises a question: who did?
Just as Christie tales like Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express bring together a group of people who will then be caught up in a murder, so here Johnson's tale introduces his main characters just ahead of the weekend. When they do converge it is as they head for the elaborate island home where Miles lives. This may be a Greek setting but it inevitably recalls the island off the coast of Britain which is the location for And Then There Were None. In this case, however, the guests are told that the occasion will be one in which a game of murder will be played, one in which they will be challenged to solve the crime. The invitation even indicates that the murder in question will be that of their host – so you could say that a murder is announced. Later, of course, well on into the film, we do discover that it has become a tale of real murder - and not one killing but two.
If the success of Knives Out led to this film, it also led to another whodunnit film linked with Agatha Christie, that being See How They Run which imagined a murder being committed backstage during the run of her hit play The Mousetrap. That film while trying to be both clever and comic was a work which, to my mind at least, fell flat on its face. Indeed, it left me with the impression that it was probably only Rian Johnson who had the requisite touch for reviving the whodunnit in a way that built successfully on the kind of entertainment mastered by Christie and others. However, Glass Onion posed a question for me since ahead of seeing it I had come across some rave reviews but also plenty that found it pleasurable yet inferior to Knives Out and some that even dismissed it as totally ill-judged. So, would I come to reconsider my view that Rian Johnson knew just how to do it?
In the event, the plot here is more laboured than that of its predecessor which was a beauty. But you only have to compare Glass Onion with See How They Run to be aware of how much better the writing is here and to appreciate how, within the constraints of this kind of work, the characters have far more life in them. In a good cast Daniel Craig continues to enjoy playing Benoit Blanc, but no less one admires the performances of others, especially Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, and Janelle Monáe, the latter being the one given the best opportunities by the screenplay. The good production values and the setting also help to make this a diversion that we can welcome at this time.
If I add that my rating may be a shade generous, that is explained by what happens at the end of the film. Since commenting on that does not involve revealing the identity of the killer, I can clarify what I mean. In what could be thought of as a further borrowing from Christie, Benoit Blanc solves the case but then finds himself short of actual proof. Christie followed that route in the Poirot story that closed his career, Curtain, and, in doing so, she came up with another of her great twists. Johnson, unable to match that, offers a final ten minutes or so which seem over-elaborate, anticlimactic and even silly. So to call Glass Onion very good may be a bit of an exaggeration. However, by that stage we have completed the mystery of whodunnit so it is not too difficult to pretend that the extra footage never happened. That sequence apart, this film offers a good time, not to mention a last glimpse of two artists who are amongst those putting in brief guest appearances. They are Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim to whom the film is dedicated.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Noah Segan, Dallas Roberts, Jackie Hoffman, Hugh Grant, James Payton, and with guest appearances by Angela Lansbury, Stephen Sondheim and others.
Dir Rian Johnson, Pro Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman, Screenplay Rian Johnson, Ph Steve Yedlin, Pro Des Rick Heinrichs, Ed Bob Ducsay, Music Nathan Johnson, Costumes Jenny Eagan, Sound Josh Gold, Dialect coach Diego Daniel Pardo.
T-Street/Netflix-Netflix. Available on Netflix in the US and UK from 23 December 2022.
140 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 23 November 2022. Cert. 12A.