Glass Onion while formulaic, remains a highly engaging murder mystery
The only real surprise in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, is the spoiled surprise – once you watch it, you’ll understand.
Love or hate his style, Rian Johnson is quite adept at making big, beautiful, entertaining movies. Fans of Knives Out will be satisfied as this is more of the same in a formulaic but fun murder mystery.
Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is a bit of a bumbling version of Hercule Poirot, but not quite Inspector Clouseau. Blanc bumbles like Clouseau but solves like Poirot. And nowhere ever is there a hint of the James Bond that was.
The story revolves around billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and his annual weekend retreat among friends, except all of these friends have a reason to want him dead. Bron plans to have the gang solve the mystery of his murder as a game throughout the weekend, but naturally, things go awry and real murders become the real mystery.
The supporting players include Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline. This is one of those movies that expresses a sense of fun and joy on the screen that very likely came from the fun the cast was having on set.
Monáe takes the reigns in the second half of the movie, turning the story upside down, while Craig and Norton have a fun chemistry setting their characters at odds with one another.
Glass Onion is a fun movie to watch. The mystery isn’t nearly as complicated as it would like you to think, but nevertheless, the journey is worthwhile.
Gordo’s Grade: B
