Glass Onion is the sequel to the successful murder mystery movie Knives Out.
Technically it’s not so much a sequel, it’s more like another story told in the same universe. The title is Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The only recurring character from the first movie is the master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Graig).
Both films fall under what I call a cozy murder mystery in which there is a murder on the loose, but we are also having a good time while catching him.
Summary
The film is about a group of “friends” who are invited to a billionaire’s private Island. The billionaire in question is a man called Miles (Edward Norton) who is supporting each of the different characters in his own way. The friend group consists of everything from a tech genius, a politician, a former model, and a Twitch men’s activist called Duke (Dave Batista).
Miles has planned this whole fun game where they have to solve his murder. Things do not go as planned since the woman Miles started his company with Cassandra Brand aka Andi (Janelle Monáe) is also attending the game despite her being cheated out of the business years ago.
Analysis
Right off the bat, the movie has to establish the different characters. They have to be introduced, given a proper characterization, establish their relationship with each other and of course, establish why all of them have an excuse to kill Miles.
The movie does a half-decent job at this; a particularly good piece of characterization is when the different characters meet Miles and give him a hug. They hug him in different ways which is a great and subtle way to show some characterization. This is unfortunately the only good thing I can say about the characters since they as a group have very little chemistry.
While the cast is not necessarily bad it pales in comparison with the Knives Out cast. Where heavy hitters like Michal Shannon, Chris Evens, Christopher Plummer, and Toni Collet all had exceptional performances that kind of put this new cast to shame.
In Knives Out the dynamic is also different since it focuses on a family apart from the main character. This means the dynamic between the chargers is easier to establish and thus you can spend your time moving the plot along faster. The family in the original was strange and driven mad by the adherence left by Christopher Plummer’s character. We know things like inheritance can drive a family mad and pit them against each other or in the case of Knives Out against the main character.
The setting in Knives Out was also better. The big house full of strange artifacts and strange charters made for a more grounded and fun mystery more a kin to the cozy mystery. Whereas the big private Island feels too lavished to the point where it simply feels fake. The Island feels cartoonish
The beginning of the film is somewhat slow and it takes its time to establish the characters. When the second act kicks in the movie starts becoming rather enjoyable.
The movie has a lot of twists and turns. First off the murder mystery is introduced as a game Miles is making and thus the danger of an actual murder is less prevalent, even though Blanc tries to convince Miles (and the audience) that a murder could happen. Blanc figures out the game super fast and makes the whole ordeal feel obsolete and anticlimactic. Which is the point.
Andi comes off as extremely cold and unapproachable, it turns out there is a good reason for this. In the second act, it is revealed that Andi is dead and her twin sister has taken on the role in the hopes of finding a red envelope that can destroy Miles´ business empire. The plot thickens when Duke ends up dead due to postining.
What is interesting here is that Duke’s death seems almost like an accident. The real murder, that of Andi, took place off-screen. The mystery and the mission of Blunc and Andi are to find out who killed the real Andi and to find the red envelope.
This also means the movie suffers from an enormous amount of info dumping. Where people will stand in a circle and explain the plot or the point of the plot for way too long.
The climax of the film is also horrible in which secrets on a napkin play an important role. Yet one of the characters gets close enough to the napkin to burn it, right there in her hands. If the napkin was so important why would you not hold it closer to yourself? HOW COULD YOU LET HIM GET SO CLOSE?
All of Miles’s friends have to stand up for what is right and finally tell the truth, However, this is achieved in the most hamfisted and predictable way imaginable. It comes off as childish and once again not believable at all.
I also have some personal gripes with the film.
First of all, it uses pop culture references which I hate. References that feel out of place are sure to age the film even more in a couple of years.
When they tell the story of Miles and Cassandra they simply say
“he social networked her out of the company”.
Using a popular film like this to simply explain a plot point is some of the worst kind of writing imaginable. It replaces complexity with a movie reference meant for the audience and not the characters since rich and famous people don’t talk in movie references.
There is also a scene with covid and masks, and all that shit which we all collectively try to forget. It is no fun being reminded of that time. There are also other references like Among Us, Shazam, and the red-pill movement.
All these references technically fit the time the movie is set in, but they feel lazy and poorly integrated.
Ethen Hawk and Hugh Grant are also in one scene for thirty seconds. Why? It’s super distracting to have big-name actors in a movie for so little time since you could easily have cast a no-name actor to do the same role for cheaper. It’s cool when Wes Anderson does it, but not anyone else.
Conclusion
Overall glass onion is not a good film. Its cast is forgettable apart from Daniel Craig. The setting feels cartoonish and not believable at all. The characters are bland, the plot is overly convoluted, the decisions of the characters suck. The climax is weak.
As of the publishing of this post, they are working on a Knives Out 3 once again with the same director as the two previous Films Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig. When it comes to Hollywood franchises, The Knives Out universe is not the worst. However, I do feel they Struck gold on the first movie and in pursuit of milking the success are making it bigger and bigger movies that feel more and more unrealistic and fake. For these kinds of movies, you have to come up with twists and turns, and by turning it into a franchise I fear the twists are going to be weirder and weirder.
Glass Onion is on the verge of a particularly stupid twist. If the audience has no chance of figuring out who the murderer is beforehand then these kinds of stories lose their charm a bit.
If The films feel like these big Hollywood productions then the coziness wears off as well.