Tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his friends for a getaway on his private Greek island. When someone turns up dead, Detective Benoit Blanc is put on the case.
When “Knives Out” was released in 2019, it had the luxury of not being part of a successful franchise. It was one film with a terrific ensemble cast, and because of its success, it has now spawned into a series of films with “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and a third movie already in the works. While Kenneth Branagh successfully resurrected Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in his 2017 film “Murder on the Orient Express,” followed by “Death on the Nile” in 2022, “Knives Out” had the honor of introducing a new super sleuth, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a private detective and one considered to be the last of the gentlemen sleuths. He’s brilliant, pragmatic, gentlemanly, unconventional, a cigar chomper, and exceedingly intellectual. But it wasn’t just Craig’s interpretation of Blanc that made “Knives Out” a huge box office and critical success; it was writer-director Rian Johnson’s top-notch script and direction, as well as the excellent supporting cast, consisting of Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.
In “Glass Onion,” Johnson swaps exhilarating dialogue and three-dimensional characters for a story that is ravishingly beautiful to behold but lacks the dynamic enthusiasm and confidence embodied within its predecessor. Filming took place in the cosmopolitan port village of Porto Heli in Greece, as well as on Spetses, an upscale, affluent island in Attica, Greece, and visually, they are stunning, and therein lies part of the problem. In “Knives Out,” most of the story transpired in the middle of winter in an old, gothic mansion, a beautiful building that never overshadowed the narrative. In “Glass Onion,” the primary residence is located on a private island off the coast of Greece, and everything that appears within the frame is, more often than not, a distraction. From the beautiful seascapes to the gorgeous sunsets to the awe-inspiring interior of the sprawling Glass Onion estate belonging to Edward Norton’s billionaire recluse, Miles Bron, everything is designed to take your eyes and breath away from the characters and the story. Maybe that was intentional, so you might forget important story elements that will pop up later on and surprise you, but I just found myself wishing I was on the island myself, enjoying the sun and lounging around in the pool.
Miles Bron (Edward Norton), a tech billionaire, invites five of his closest friends to Glass Onion, his Greek island, for a “murder mystery party” weekend. He claims he will be murdered, and it is up to everyone to solve the case. Learning that Benoit Blanc was inadvertently invited to the party, Miles informs him that he is welcome to stay for the weekend and join the festivities, but just as Miles is about to start the game, Benoit stands up and solves the case in one try, leaving Miles angry and irritated. Shortly after that, one of the friends chokes to death and leaves the group in a state of shock as their lifeless body falls to the floor. Then another person is shot and killed, and Benoit ushers the remaining friends back into the house and informs them that the island is now an active crime scene and that the killer is among them. He promises to do everything in his power to apprehend them once he figures out exactly what transpired. With the clock ticking, Benoit struggles to unravel the day’s activities and everyone’s role. He begins to question his own abilities as the case appears insolvable, even for the great Benoit Blanc.
“Glass Onion” is a fun-filled romp with an incredible ensemble cast and gorgeous Mediterranean locations. Rian Johnson dreams up some far-fetched but entertaining scenarios, including one about halfway through the film that quickly backtracks to the beginning and shows everything from a completely different perspective, a scene that left me grinning from ear to ear. Like any franchise, each entry will have its pros and cons, and some movies will be better than others; personally, I preferred “Knives Out,” but that doesn’t mean “Glass Onion” isn’t any good; it’s just not as good. With a third entry currently in pre-production, I think Craig has found a new franchise outside of James Bond, and for a lot of actors who have played the British secret agent, that is vital to their continued success as an actor, as some of them have become typecast in the same type of roles. If you enjoyed “Knives Out,” you will have a blast with “Glass Onion.”
In Select Theaters Wednesday, November 23rd, and streaming on Netflix Friday, December 23rd
