Glass Onion: A Fun in the Sun Whodunit
It’s hard to do a spoiler-free review of a mystery movie. You don’t want to give too much away but also that really hampers what you are able to say. Nevertheless, I am going to attempt and do my best to do so. Last night I saw Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in theaters and I knew I had to write a review about it.
The short version: I loved it – go see it.
The Premise
A few years back Knives Out introduced us to the great detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig and his amazing heavy Southern Accent. Also Chris Evans in cable-knit sweaters. Glass Onion brings us back to our friend Mr. Blanc. Only this time we are in the early chunk of the pandemic (probably like May 2020?) and he’s given a random and out-of-nowhere invitation to join a murder mystery party on a tech billionaire’s private island with said billionaire’s friends.
Naturally, murder occurs at said party and needs to be solved.
It’s a pretty straight-forward premise, so the movie rides on two things: the characters and the mystery itself.
Impressions
One of the things I absolutely HATE in mysteries is when the audience is given such limited information that when the detective reveals things and there is just no way a. they could know that and/or b. the reader could never have put the pieces together and reached that conclusion. It’s like you reach the end and it’s the detective goes “A Wizard did it! I can tell because MAGIC!”
This movie is the opposite of that kind of storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not simple or see through our anything like that. But there were several things watching that made me go “huh, that’s odd…” that did indeed turn out to be important clues. This to me is a mark of good mystery writing.
The middle lags a bit but the first act is delightful and the last like 10 minutes of the movie were so satisfying they made me cheer (quietly). So while it does feel a little bloated in the middle, it’s worth it for the ending.
Secondly – this movie is hilarious. It was especially fun to see in the theaters and have everyone laughing together. That’s part of the fun of going to the movies after all. I wrote in my review of Knives Out that it was a mystery first and comedic second. This one is more equal parts of both. It’s definitely a whodunit, but it also is very, very funny.
Honestly, I liked it more than the first Knives Out movie.
Favorite Non-Spoiler-y Bits
In a nutshell – the characters. Omg, the characters in this movie are delightful. Not all of them, a couple of the main supporting cast are pretty meh. Lionel Toussaint, played by Leslie Odom Jr. in particular is extremely underwritten. Miles Bron’s (the billionaire’s) friends are meant to be caricatures on some level, so they are a bit one-note, but that’s kind of the point. And they hit who they are supposed to be perfectly and with so many tiny perfect jokes. My favorite might be when Miles gives his friend Claire Debella, her favorite drink “white wine, room temperature,” and she responds with “Pinot Grigio.”
My favorite characters were the true side characters, who were consistently sprinkled in there. Whiskey, the girlfriend of Dave Bautista’s character was so great and given respect in a way characters like her rarely are, and Peg, another friend’s personal assistant, is hands down one of my favorite characters in the movie.
Also, Derol. Everything about Derol. Watch the movie and you’ll understand.
Acting MVP
Edward Norton plays the tech billionaire Miles Bron and he does it perfectly. The exact right level of smug and self-satisfied but also name-dropping any and every chance he can to emphasize just how impressive he is. You want to smack him so hard but he has enough charisma that it makes sense why he gets so many people who don’t know him to be impressed with him. Cable news charisma, as it were.
Conclusion
My rating: Four out of four Beatles members.
