When Rian Johnson's murder mystery Knives Out was released in 2019, it didn't seem like the kind of movie to launch a franchise. But after its surprisingly substantial success at the box office, there was a bidding war for the rights to sequels, which Netflix eventually won. That puts a lot more pressure on Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Johnson's new murder mystery starring eccentric detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), but Johnson sticks to the path he laid out in the first movie, delivering a satisfying and entirely self-contained mystery connecting back to the traditions of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
With Glass Onion, Johnson proves himself a better heir to Poirot creator Agatha Christie than Kenneth Branagh, who's heading into production on his third Poirot movie. Johnson's Blanc tales are light and clever, the opposite of Branagh's leaden Poirot movies, and he makes better use of his all-star casts. Craig is the only returning actor from Knives Out, and as he did in the first movie, Johnson populates the cast with famous faces, led by Edward Norton as tech billionaire Miles Bron.
At the height of the pandemic in May 2020, Bron invites a group of his old friends and fellow "disruptors" to a getaway on his private island off the coast of Greece. He also, for reasons that are not immediately clear, invites Blanc, whom he's never met. The guest list includes politician Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), Miles' chief scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), fashionista Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), a men's-rights social media influencer. Birdie's assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick) and Duke's girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline) tag along, but the biggest surprise arrival is Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe), Miles' former business partner whom he recently forced out of their company following a lengthy legal battle.
The initial pandemic-related setup is a bit cumbersome, but once the characters are united on the island, Glass Onion kicks into gear, with the same kind of witty banter and devious scheming that made Knives Out so fun to watch out. Once again, Blanc is immersed in the world of the amoral ultra-rich, and while Glass Onion is less pointed in its social commentary than Knives Out was, it's still pretty harsh in its depiction of oblivious 1-percenters. Miles summons his supposed friends to his lair with ominous invitations, and it's implied that they don't really have the option of saying no. As Blanc points out, he's deliberately gathered a group of people who all have motivations to kill him.
The central murder isn't unveiled until the movie is nearly halfway over, though, giving the audience (and Blanc) plenty of time to understand the characters and their relationships before one of them ends up dead. It requires some viewer patience, but Johnson and the actors make the playful, barbed interactions between the characters a delight, all while seeding clues for the eventual solution to the crime. Johnson's bigger budget is evident in the title location, an extravagant glass-and-steel structure that sits at the center of Miles' island, and the climax includes set pieces that probably wouldn't have been within Knives Out's comparatively modest means.
Even as the production threatens to get away from him, Johnson keeps tight control on the intricate narrative, with Craig as his anchor point. Blanc gets just enough character development to make him more than a plot device, while remaining an outside observer to the central action. Netflix has already paid for the rights to a third movie, and Glass Onion proves that Blanc is more than capable of carrying an ongoing franchise, as long as Johnson is at the helm. ♦
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
