Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - Review
An Oasis in lockdown :
The movie starts with knocking on multiple doors. And unlike real-world courier delivery services, Alpha Courier delivers identical boxes to a group of friends simultaneously.
A group of 5 friends consisting of a woke-left-leaning Governor (Claire Debella), a Lead Scientist of a space company (Leslie Odom Jr), a controversial Fashion star (Kate Hudson), a fitness-freak social media personality (Dave Bautista) and a business associate (Janelle Monáe). This group may look like it's made of very different types of people, but their ties lie more deeply rooted than just the gift.
The mysterious box is a sophisticated multi-layered puzzle that holds an invitation to a week-long party on a private island, not just any party but one where they will have to solve the alleged mystery of who murdered the host (Edward Norton).
And then the door of the world's best detective; who is miserably bored in the Lockdown despite the Among Us losing streak, gets a knock. With an invite for the same party from an anonymous source, and that’s how as they say, "The Game is Afoot…."
The elephant in the room :
With the cast set on a Greek island, the story revolves around the mystery and plays with each character's goals and motivations. With Agatha Christie's significant influence, many twists and turns try to escape the genre. The movie tries to balance the mystery and comedy aspects, with Kate Hudsons and Dave Batista's characters being the butt of the joke most times.
The story's overall structure works well, but it loses the mystery and intrigue towards the second half and cannot be as exciting as the first movie. We get a basic understanding of the characters, and there are a lot of hidden details that the film asks the audience to keep an eye on, from what the characters speak to the sets and costumes.
[Very-Mild-Spoilers]
With the structure being unique as Knives Out did, the story is shown in a non-linear manner, but it feels less organic than before. The movie grinds to a halt in the middle and takes a while to pick up the pace again.
Comparing the visuals with the first movie, Glass Onion has a different approach, moving away from the first's browns and cute and comfortable sweaters to the shiny and rainbow dressing. Since the movie's setting takes place in Greece, there is a big emphasis on wide shots, more scenic and beautiful.
With an intriguing piano melody, the score eases the viewers into the movie, followed by the classical song by Johann Sebastian Bach, hinting at the puzzling wooden box that serves as an invitation to the group gathered in Greece. It also hints at how the story's structure is shown to the audience. Several Beatles songs like "Blackbird" and the titular "Glass Onion" also frame the mystery. David Bowie's "Star" and "Starman" also shine some light on the subject. The original "Hourly Dong" was written and performed by the one and only Joseph Gordon-Levitt, giving the movie a humorous tone. Nathan Johnson returns to score the second movie, the theme shifts from the string quartet to soft pianos while the rest of the score combines orchestral work to fit the context of the mystery story.
With an ensemble cast again, Rian Johnson makes sure to write each character in a way that makes us relate to their real-life counterparts. The perspective this time shifts to the audience following Benoit Blanc and learning and seeing the group of friends from his viewpoint. The movie's pacing feels jarring in the middle but again picks up momentum towards the finale.
Rian Johnson's movies have a classical, throwback sensibility to them. You can sit down with films like Knives Out and Looper and tell immediately that it's a Rian Johnson movie. They are equally comfortable in being kinetic as they are sitting still. Not afraid to move the camera in interesting ways, yet not scared to sit with a scene. This can be seen in Glass Onion, as he switches from wide shots to close-ups and gives an idea of the scope of the island.
He plays with tension. He can surprise us, or he loves to subvert and surprise us. This works best for his two detective movies and helps give them a sense of unease. Rian Johnson loves a good reveal. He writes his stories in a way that they tend to be layered and complex, and you never truly understand what's going on until the final frame.
He loves to unveil those secrets with the panning reveal. Similar to Tarantino's directing style and Scorsese, it helps feed into Johnson's preference for long takes. He's a filmmaker who loves to play with narrative, and he knows the rules laid down by directors before him but loves to break them at will.
The movie tries to be grander and more significant than the first and loses some of the charms of simple storytelling. Some stand-out performances were the excellent Daniel Craig coming back as Benoit Blanc and Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton, making this comedy worth watching.
Should you watch it?
If you are a fan of Mystery and Detective stories, we recommend you watch this movie. The movie has flaws, but it tells a fun and funny story. We recommend you watch Knives Out (2019) before diving into Glass Onion; both films are available on Netflix in India. As a recommendation, you can watch the 1974 adaptation of the Agatha Christie Novel, Murder on the Orient Express. For a modern movie of a classic tale, watch the 2009 rendition by Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes.
