Peeling the Onion

Knives Out was a movie I quite enjoyed when it was first released, and it held up (maybe even improved a little, in my view) when I recently watched it again. That re-watch, as you might guess, was in "preparation" for the second Benoit Blanc story, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Glass Onion sees writer-director Rian Johnson throwing his sleuth character, played by Daniel Craig, into a twisty new mystery with an all-new, all-star cast. A conceited tech billionaire has invited his friends to participate in a murder mystery game at a palatial escape pad when a real mystery emerges. Just like that, the game is on.

Except that nothing is as simple as what it seems. In this aspect, Glass Onion impressed me even more than Knives Out, as it doubled down on two key aspects of the previous movie. First, the "class critique" of Knives Out is made even more explicit in Glass Onion, with the line between the haves and have-nots driving the entire case. And this time, added to the mix is a scathing and timely criticism of just how stupid billionaires can be.

Second... well, this gets slightly spoilery (of both films), so skip this paragraph if you need to. One of the most clever aspects of Knives Out is how the mystery didn't appear to be the mystery until well into the story. We think we know what has happened until very late in the game, when new information makes the audience rethink everything that has transpired. Miraculously, Glass Onion pulls off this trick again, even though the audience will surely be expecting it. Once again, the mystery you think you're watching is not the one you're actually watching.

However, while I found the plotting of Glass Onion to be masterfully clever, I found the characters somewhat less compelling than in the original. And the same kind of goes for the cast. There are highlights; besides Daniel Craig hamming it up once again as detective Benoit Blanc, Glass Onion gives all the space over to Kate Hudson to play over the top, and Janelle Monáe excels in a way that you can't fully appreciate until deep into the movie. Not that the rest of the cast is bad, by any stretch; Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr, and more are all clearly having fun and making things fun for us to watch. I just didn't quite feel the crackle I did with the Knives Out ensemble.

Still, mysteries are difficult in general to pull off well. So the fact that I can compare this with Knives Out at all and find some things I liked more (even if there are others I liked less)? For me, that makes Glass Onion a success. Though I'll pick Knives Out if forced to choose, I'd also give Glass Onion the same B+ I gave the original.

I'll certainly be there for whatever Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig do with Benoit Blanc next.