'Glass Onion' review: Bright, bubbly whodunit
Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc in "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." Credit: Netflix / John Wilson
MOVIE “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”
WHEN|WHERE Streaming on Netflix starting Friday
WHAT IT’S ABOUT The featureless wooden box is delivered without explanation and without instructions. Just opening it proves to be a puzzle, and inside is another that leads to another: a 3-D tic-tac-toe game, a strange chess board, a Morse code device. The prize for solving them: an engraved invitation to a fabulous party on the private Greek island of billionaire Miles Bron. There, guests will drink, dine and “solve the mystery of my murder.”
How convenient that the party will be crashed by the world famous detective Benoit Blanc! Why is he there? And will this murder turn out to be more than just a game?
MY SAY That box is a perfect analogy for the very movie it’s in. “Glass Onion,” Rian Johnson’s follow-up to his 2019 Agatha Christie homage “Knives Out,” is a smart, stylish, well-constructed brainteaser that should provide a solid two hours of amusement. Unlike Kenneth Branagh’s Christie adaptation from earlier this year, “Death on the Nile,” which was steeped in noirish 1930’s romanticism, “Glass Onion” is a thoroughly modern mystery-comedy, all bright colors, sleek sets, clever twists and very online humor.
Johnson has assembled an eclectic cast to play his quirky main characters. Kathryn Hahn is Claire Debella, the calculating governor of Connecticut; Leslie Odom Jr. plays the brilliant scientist Lionel Toussaint; Dave Bautista is Duke Cody, a swaggering meathead with a profitably misogynistic podcast; and Kate Hudson, dazzling as ever, plays Birdie Jay, a social-media “influencer” with a bad habit of getting herself canceled. (“It was a tribute to Beyoncé,” she insists of her unfortunate Halloween costume.)
Years ago, this unlikely group of brainiacs and dolts gathered at the Glass Onion bar in New York City and waxed idealistic about changing the world. The biggest waxer was Miles, who joined their ranks and made them rich – but at the cost of their integrity. Played with just the right blend of smarm and sincerity by Edward Norton, Miles could be a stand-in for Steve Jobs (black sweater, bluejeans) or Elon Musk (self-satisfied, insufferable), but he's really just any tech mogul you love to hate.
The person who hates him most is Andi Brand, a visionary businesswoman whose ideas he swiped; hence, his vast fortune. Played by Janelle Monáe, an increasingly welcome screen presence (she all but stole “Hidden Figures”), Andi shows up to Miles’ party with murder in her eyes – but there’s more to this character than first appears.
As for Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, he of the twinkling eyes and Foghorn Leghorn accent, his shtick can be a bit much. At one point Blanc connives to lay on his “Southern charm” – well, what else has he been doing? Still, it’s nice to see Craig having fun; he cracks more smiles here than in his five James Bond films combined. (The whole cast seems in good spirits, and why not? “Glass Onion” was filmed on a real Greek island, Spetses, in the summer of 2021 -- surely a most pleasant pandemic getaway.)
Johnson’s elaborate plot encompasses a dazzling array of ideas, some of them inspired (Miles owns the actual Mona Lisa), some a tad silly (a small chunk of crystal that packs the power of a hydrogen bomb). To say more would spoil the fun. With its layers upon layers, “Glass Onion” will keep you guessing, crack you up and, as a bonus, leave you humming that classic Beatles tune.
BOTTOM LINE A bright and bubbly whodunit, perfect for holiday-season escapism.
