Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Review of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, directed by Rian Johnson
As someone who works their side hustle as an entertainment journalist, Glass Onion had been everywhere for a solid month or two. I didn’t get any screeners in advance, but I do have AMC A List.
I debated going to see this on a big movie screen, but I was very afraid of COVID and/or getting sick in general, so when I saw my local AMC was going to be packed for these showings, I decided to opt out and wait for it to come out in theaters. I waited until I purchased a new computer with a better screen, and at the end of December I booted it up on a chilly night and decided to watch it.
Ironically, this is only my second Daniel Craig movie. I almost saw him when he was on Broadway in Sam Gold’s production of MacBeth this past summer, but decided to opt out of it because of how terrible the reviews were.
So when I watched this movie, I was so confused by his accent because I’d only see him in one James Bond movie on a flight to Hawaii when I was half asleep. I also have never seen the first movie, which I don’t think is necessary to watch this movie. I still have no idea what happens in Knives Out, and I don’t think it matters much.
Onwards with the review!
Benoit Blanc has to solve a mystery at a millionaire’s mansion.
From what I have heard about the first movie, Knives Out, I think this movie follows a similar premise. It’s a classic murder mystery in the vein of novelists like Agatha Christie, but, to be honest, I found this film to be extremely predictable. The plot for this one is that a billionaire invites his friends to his isolated mansion, which looks to be on an island, and all of them have their own backstories.
One woman is the Mayor of Massachusetts, another is his head scientist for his company, one man is a men’s rights activist (kill me), a fashion designer, and, much to the surprise of the other people named, the ousted co-founder of the billionaire’s company: Andi. There are a couple of other miscellaneous characters scattered throughout, such as the designer’s assistant, the activist’s girlfriend, and the random guy who lives in the island and smokes weed.
Benoit Blanc comes in because the ousted co-founder, Andi, was actually killed right before this weekend started. The news hasn’t leaked to the press, and her concerned sister from Alabama makes her way to New York to hire Blanc. She believes someone in the core group murdered her because they all turned their backs on her when she took the billionaire to court.
Andi took the billionaire, Miles, to court because she knew he was stealing her ideas, then her former friends, which she had introduced Miles to originally, turned against her to protect their own hides and monetary interests. At the same time, it becomes increasingly obvious that the product Miles developed is extremely harmful and dangerous, but he doesn’t care probably because he’s greedy.
As it turns out, all of these people have a background they’re being blackmailed with. The fashion designer is being told by Miles to reveal that her clothing was made in Bangladesh by sweatshop workers, and because she was dumb to begin with, she thought the word sweatshop meant that it was literally made to be ethical.
The men’s rights activist is revealed to have witnessed Miles leaving the house after killing Andi, which leads to Miles killing him with a legal dose of pineapple juice, which the guy is allergic to. Blanc pretends that Andi’s sister was shot and killed (Miles did shoot at her) during a blackout, giving her the opportunity to find the random bar napkin her sister wrote the company plan on.
The problem with this movie is that while all the details align perfectly, I don’t think the mystery hook of who did it is really good. I found it pretty obvious from the beginning it would be Miles because he had the most to lose. It’s the finer details that make this kind of movie more interesting, as, for example, the men’s activist driving by and making a comment about it off-handedly while in the pool.
A viewer casually watching this isn’t going to catch that immediately until the movie literally rewinds it and shows that moment again. But, at the same time, rewinding it and giving the clues to the viewer is way too easy. You want people to rewatch and see what they missed. Sure, this is more accessible, but people are a bit less likely to think critically about scenes when you feed it to them.
There are a lot of pokes of wealth and the elites in the movie, but someone who actually studied Bengali in order to try and understand the garment factory situation in Bangladesh, I find movies that critique wealth in this way to be actually contributing to the problem.
Sure, it raises awareness in a different kind of way, but when it turns a real-life situation faced by people of color, many of whom are very poor women and children, into the brunt of a joke that people laugh at, then that’s not good. It doesn’t become real in their minds. It becomes part of a joke in a movie, like wow look at this stupid blonde fashion designer. This is something that annoyed me when I was watching it, but this is a common problem I have with watching these kinds of movies.
Overall Thoughts
I think it’s an entertaining movie. If I want a solid mystery, I don’t think I’d watch something like this though. It’s too easy. Miles is clearly an amateur with crime and it shows with his every move. Even in the one scene, Blanc unfolds his mystery story almost immediately, much to Miles’ embarrassment.
But that extends into his actual crime, too: it was too easy to figure out. Maybe this was intentional, but as someone expecting a murder mystery I wanted a bit more from that angle than this. The acting was great though, and I think there were some excellent jokes scattered throughout. I’d watch it again if I’m being honest, but with different expectations.
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