To my mind, Knives Out is an almost perfect film. Its performances are stellar, its humour is impeccable and, perhaps most importantly for a murder mystery, its structure is flawless. The film’s writer/director Rian Johnson knows how to craft a satisfying story which surprises audiences by flipping their perception of what the narrative actually is. This subversive structure not only helps make the film work as well as it does, but it made me particularly nervous for Johnson’s sequel - Glass Onion, released three years after the first Benoit Blanc case hit cinemas. Thankfully, this mystery mostly sticks the landing despite some shortcomings, especially when compared to its Oscar-nominated predecessor.
The film follows Craig as the ever fantastic detective Benoit Blanc as he - alongside a variety of other self-proclaimed ‘disruptors’ - is sent an invitation to a private island owned by a futuristic ‘genius’ tech billionaire. As with Knives Out prior, Glass Onion’s most interesting aspect is its structure. The film takes its time by design, being in no rush to set up the primary cast and tease threads of intrigue which will run through the narrative. Yet it does take an unusually long while to put all these pieces in place - perhaps too long as my screening was cursed with joke after joke not landing in the first act. For a film produced by a streaming service on which viewers' attention and retention is constantly fought for (Netflix distributing the film in cinemas for a week before a streaming release just in time for Christmas), the story doesn’t do much to hook audiences in during its opening sequences. In many ways it’s not dissimilar to Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Death on the Nile released earlier this year, with an initial slow pace which made me yearn for the mystery to properly begin unravelling. Some may argue that later twists and turns make this critique less valid, yet it's undeniable that the film’s laborious first act could be trimmed to create an overall tighter narrative. It feels like the far superior second half of the film is really a conscious apology for the first.
Moving away from the script, the film’s production design and soundtrack are exquisite, matching the vibe of the story in a brilliant fashion. Arguably the cinematography isn’t given as much room to shine compared to Knives Out (with notable exceptions such as the blackout scene), there’s a kinetic nature to the blocking and camera movement - albeit sometimes unnecessarily so. In terms of performances, the stand-out cast members are undoubtedly Daniel Craig as the endlessly entertaining Blanc and the absolutely impeccable Janelle Monáe, whose acting dominates and electrifies the screen every time she appears. This is especially impressive considering how every principal cast member appears to have been instructed to be as big as possible, becoming near-exhausting through the high density of almost caricature-esque performances. This ‘bigger is better’ ideology stretches to most of the creative decisions in the film and I certainly won’t deny that when it works, it really works. However, for me this was somewhat hit or miss.
But as the film continued, it's undeniable that I found the experience increasingly entertaining. Whilst I certainly don’t want to spoil anything, the film appears much smarter as it goes along, providing some brilliantly satisfying and hilarious moments which made me grin gleefully as more and more layers are peeled back. It’s certainly an emotional narrative - deftly balancing seemingly antithetical tones as comedy and catharsis are blended with beats of drama and near-disgust toward some characters. Its themes and ideologies are certainly not subtle, but they’re not aiming to be, instead being scarily and hilariously timely considering recent events in a way even the filmmakers could never have intended. Johnson has often compared his vision for the Benoit Blanc films to Agatha Christie’s bibliography, both using contemporaneous settings with differing stylistic approaches to provide new perspectives on the mystery genre. Glass Onion clearly adheres to this, using an unabashedly modern world moulded by the Covid-19 pandemic through a multitude of pop-culture cameos. References to NFTs and Among Us make sense for the story being told, but I wonder how well they will age compared to the somewhat timeless quality Knives Out inhabits in spite of its cultural references to Instagram and influencers.
Glass Onion ultimately succeeds in providing a bright, clever and satisfying mystery story just in time for the festive period. Yet the film’s less stellar elements can’t be denied - mostly stemming from an intrinsically slow and often painfully humourless opening. Watching Craig’s character peel back the layers of a twisted mystery will always be entertaining and I’d love to see more Benoit Blanc mysteries with Rian Johnson at the helm, but the film is held back by some of its bolder choices. For me, a rewatch could prove either very rewarding, or somewhat disappointing.
