Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) pays a visit to the island paradise of an eccentric billionaire (Edward Norton) in Rian Johnson’s latest murder mystery.
★★★★★
There’s nothing quite like a good murder. When the first images of Knives Out emerged in 2019, they were met with a tide of goodwill more often associated with extravagantly decorated cakes than movies where people are stabbed in the throat. The murder mystery had been as dead as Mr. Black, the game of Cluedo long since packed up and stuffed in the loft when the owners ran out of the little answer sheets and couldn’t be bothered to turn on the photocopier.
Rian Johnson’s first mystery outing, however, was a treat. And now, the film which single-handedly resuscitated an ailing genre has a quirkily-named sequel in Glass Onion. And what a sequel it is. If Knives Out was a cake, Glass Onion is a proper Bake Off Showstopper, a clockwork sponge of a movie that builds upon the tone and playfulness of the original to firmly cement Benoit Blanc in the pantheon of all-time great cinema detectives.
Just like Knives Out, Glass Onion has no qualms about placing itself in the current moment, and so the film starts with Mr Blanc in the bath, bored out of his mind as the Covid lockdown enters its umpteenth week. One knock at the door later, however, and ol’ “CSI KFC” is whisked off to tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton)’s private Greek island for a “murder mystery weekend”—where not everything is as it seems…
It’s a deliciously conventional set-up, but what makes Benoit Blanc’s two outings stand out is Johnson’s willingness to play with the genre. While Glass Onion might not be as emotionally driven as its predecessor, the plot retains the first film’s ability to wrong-foot the audience. And while the first’s midpoint twist may have had genre purists gnashing their teeth at discovering the killer’s identity so soon, this time around the mystery only builds towards the inevitably satisfying conclusion, with plenty of ‘aha!’ moments en route. Without giving anything away, it’s a puzzle box that remains just as satisfying even while Johnson smashes the structure to bits.
It’s funny, too, to the point that without the promised fatal element there’s a case to be made that Glass Onion could stand as a comedy in its own right. Even more so than Knives Out, the first hour is packed with gags that serve the dual purpose of hiding hints and clues in plain sight while keeping the action riotously entertaining. This sense of fun shines through at every opportunity—Daniel Craig is still having a blast delivering his best Southern drawl, and the film clearly loves embracing classic murder mystery tropes for its own ends.
Speaking of tropes, Johnson’s ability to put together a cast of archetypes, but not stereotypes, is remarkable. Yes, the residents of Bron’s island paradise are all very rich, and span the usual gamut of unpleasantness from morally tortured scientist to meat-headed fitness influencer. But each character hits the impossible sweet spot between compellingly awful and just plain human perfectly. Their motives are completely believable, and each one is just relatable enough that even when an undisclosed number (no spoilers here!) meet their demise, it’s hard not to feel a little bad for them. Just like last time, the whole cast brings their A-game, and provides a pretty convincing argument that whoever’s casting these films needs some kind of award.
It is odd that a genre entirely reliant on grisly murders has become synonymous with feel-good movies. Sure, people love a good puzzle, but that hardly accounts for the cultural impact of the first Knives Out, or why Netflix has pretty much backpedalled on its own streaming strategy to bring Glass Onion to cinemas for a limited release in November.
Maybe it’s not the murder at all. Because if there’s one thing that’s plain to see two films into this franchise, it’s that everyone involved loves making these movies. They love the genre, the sense of humour, the cast of deliciously kooky characters. They love the emotional authenticity of a film so unafraid of being exactly what it says on the tin, and they love making a story that’ll have audiences grinning from beginning to end. It’s almost enough to make someone cry. And it’s a pretty rare cake that’ll do that.
The Verdict
Smart, silly, and sizzling with style, Glass Onion is a riotous crowd-pleaser blast from beginning to end. If Rian Johnson only makes murder mysteries until the end of time, we can all die happy. And Benoit Blanc will be right on the case when we do.
Words by James Harvey
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is in cinemas for one week only from November 23
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