Glass Onion: A Knives out Murder Mystery

“Glass Onion” was a whole lot of fun! A star studded whodunnit crime thriller that had a good twisty central mystery and also offered up laughs along the way as the misdirections and red herrings kept piling up. And for that reason, it actually made sense for this to be a Netflix film - the communal experience of guessing and theorising and gasping really enhanced the viewing pleasure. Because without it, if you just stripped this film to its core, it only worked because of its pedigree - Rian Johnson and its well-liked prequel. 

Otherwise, objectively and on its own, besides the script and some standout performances (and cameos), this film’s core cast lacked the electrifying chemistry that the first movie’s cast had and, most importantly, it lacked any sort emotional weight or heart. We barely cared for the victim and none of the suspects were sympathetic. Sure, the script and mystery was rather smart, but at over 2 hours long, we barely cared for any of them. We just wanted Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc to solve the mystery - to see if we got it right or not. 

But thankfully we had Craig. He was brilliant and he has really hit a post-Bond gold mine with this role. There was enough camp in his performance to make him interesting but not too offensive (hint: Hugh Grant!). Janelle Monáe also stood out, and without spoiling too much, she would be the only one of the cast to perhaps deserve an acting nomination. The last standout, was surprisingly, Kate Hudson. She really went all out and embraced her ditsy blond character and got the biggest laughs. 

Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr and Jessica Henwick were wasted; Edward Norton over acted - as usual - even for his character; did not care for Dave Bautista who still cannot act; and Madelyn Cline was interesting but underbaked. 

As proven, “Glass Onion” is a Golden Globes sort of film, but to crack into the Oscars it will be a long shot. Nonetheless, still looking forward to Benoit Blanc’s next adventure, but perhaps maybe a bit less “White Lotus” and more “Knives Out”.