Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) Review

“So dumb it’s brilliant”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS IS ADVISED.

Some say the greatest mystery is the kind that’s right in front of you or one that you can’t see possible. If you get both at once, then you’re in for quite a journey. 


PLOT


Netflix’s Glass Onion is a sequel to Knives Out that takes place only 7 months after the events of the preceding film. Famous detective Benoit Blanc is seemingly invited by Miles Bron, co founder of the technology company ‘Alpha’, to be part of a murder mystery game in a private Greece island where his mansion resides. He is able to achieve the invitation after deciphering a wooden puzzle box. He travels on a boat alongside Miles’ friend group dubbed ‘The Disruptors’ that include: Alpha’s head scientist Lionel Toussaint, Connecticut governor Claire Deballa, supermodel turned fashion designer Birdie Jay & her assistant Peg, streamer/activist Duke Cody & his girlfriend Whiskey, and the estranged member of the group Cassandra Brand aka Andi, who co founded Alpha. Upon arriving at the island, Miles would be delighted to see the Disruptors arriving, but he would be thrown off guard seeing Andi show up since he didn’t really expect her and never intended to invite Blanc. Despite this, he allows the latter to stay assuming the people who were paid to make the puzzle boxes, made a spare for fun’s sake. Andi doesn’t ignore the past when she reminds ongoing tension with her and the Disruptors, as they rely on Miles to get out of trouble, while she was kicked out of Alpha with nothing in return. Before dinner, Miles shows off he has the actual Mona Lisa painting on loan, has a copy of Alpha’s original plan in a napkin from their favorite titular bar, and shows off the mansion is ran by a hydrogen based alternative fuel he wants to sell through Alpha called ‘Klear’, but he ignores the warnings of Lionel & Claire that it’s too dangerous. The murder mystery game starts during dinner, but Blanc figures out the answer so easily which ruins Miles’ plans for the remainder of the night. He does this to warn him that each of his guests have a real motive to kill him. Andi would storm off when arguing with the Disruptors about how they stood by Miles when he kicked her out and shortly after, Duke would die of a poison from his drink. As that happens, someone steals his pistol during a power outage. When Blanc goes looking for Andi, she gets shot from an unknown assailant. The story then proceeds to a flashback showing the woman accompanying Blanc was not Andi, but her twin sister Helen. Helen came to him with the same puzzle box she broke to get the invite. It was sent to her home by Miles as an insult because her sister had recently died of an apparent suicide. She knows he kicked his sister out of Alpha over the Klear dispute and she lost the lawsuit when the rest of the Distuptors foreswore by testifying Miles single handedly sketched out the Alpha plans on the napkin when it was in-fact Andi. Before she died, she sent an email to them all claiming she had the original napkin. Because of her death not gone public yet, Helen suspects Miles responsible for her death. Blanc agrees to help and suggests the idea for her to go the island disguised as her sister to get proof of his actions, which he of course joins him. During the afternoon before dinner, Helen does convince everyone she is Andi and Blanc does help get the answers to why the rest of the Disruptors are protecting Miles: Lionel & Claire have their reputations at stake for Klear, Duke is pleading to get onboard for Alpha News and even tried to get Whiskey to convince him when sleeping with him which to no avail, and Birdie needed his financial assistance to handle the fallout of her sweatshop use of developing sweatpants. Since she gets confirmation that each of them visited Andi’s home the day she died, over her email of the napkin, she suspects all were likely there to try convincing her not to go public with the napkin if not kill her. Helen doesn’t find the napkin at all before dinner and when Duke dies, not even she sees who shot her but she survives the shot due to having a journal in her jacket pocket blocking the shot. She was however chased by Whiskey when she suspected her of killing Duke. Resuming to the story’s present, Blanc gives his theory on miles being the perpetrator of everything while Helen searches his office for the original napkin. The detective shares the complete theory that Miles poisoned Andi when finding out of the napkin which he took (thanks to Lionel faxing the email to him), intentionally gave Duke pineapple juice as poison due to his allergies when he got a Google Alert of Andi’s death gone public and wanted to use it as blackmail since they saw each other leave Andi’s home, and he took his gun to shoot Helen during the power outage. With everything laid out, Helen reveals herself which leave the Disruptors all in shock. Miles quickly takes back the napkin from Helen and burns it to maintain his lie. With no evidence left, there is nothing left for Blanc to do. This inspires Helen to go on a rageful outburst by destroying all of the glass sculptures and throw a piece of Klear into the fire, causing an explosion that destroys the Mona Lisa. The Disruptors would then agree to testify against Miles when seeing proof of how dangerous the fuel is and the film ends with everyone watching the police boats arrive.


THOUGHTS


It is hard to go for a second home run when sparking a whole new realm of originality, but Ryan Johnson is able to do in a sequel that arguably meets all the expectations going into it. This follow-up was quite fun to get through due to how he antes up homage to the genre with its meta-ness and Easter eggs. I mean while it was hilarious to see Serena Williams on standby to be a virtual workout trainer and see fake products that were sponsored by Jeremy Renner & Jared Leto, it was pretty cool to see Blanc virtually play Among Us with celebrities that have given their crack at the sub-genre as a whole (Poker Face Star Natasha Lyonne, Murder She Wrote Star Angela Lansbury, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who co-wrote Mycroft Holmes and Stephen Sondheim, who co-wrote The Last of Sheila). Hell, I was laughing so hard that Miles hired Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn to write his murder party that Blanc would crack easily. Due to this story taking place in May of 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, you would feel all the isolation the characters are supposed to feel thanks to Steve Yedlin’s fantastic cinematography & a grounded score by Rian’s cousin, Nathan Johnson. It has its fair amount of comparisons to its predecessor where a group of upper class people go through a big puzzle to see what a curse wealth is. In this case, it straight up says you shouldn't trade your independence & integrity for success otherwise you won't be happy after you get what you want. That is the dilemma of the Disruptors who did start out loving each other genuinely for their open minds but the success of one led to the reliance from many. Edward Norton is the polar opposite to what Harlan Thrombey was to his family because rather than teach them to rely on him, he is making sure they do. The irony is that we assume he is going to be a victim of murder, only to see him commit it twice to cover his tracks. He was honestly quite delusional thinking every idea he had would work until it blew up in his face. The greatest thing he ever created is the blueprint to his own downfall because he does it without even trying. If he was far more careful with his choice of words, I'm sure he could've gotten away with all he did. As for the rest of the gang, they all relied on him because they didn't really know how to do anything else without him until push come to shove. In one case, I wouldn't deem Lionel selfish because Leslie Odom Jr. showed him to be a guy reserved enough to speak up before being rebuffed. Kathryn Han portrayed Claire as one far too image obsessed with her own glory. Even she knew Klear was not safe, but did not speak up like Lionel did because she was too afraid of the fallout and was only concerned of protecting herself. Kate Hudson was far more complex than expected which makes her stand out, because although she is most flamboyant, she is very problematic as she's desperate for validation that she'll rely on Miles to keep it. I mean it is totally on her and no one else to assume sweatshops are the sole source to make sweatpants. Peg is not even an official disruptor, yet Jessica Henwick showed her to have more common sense than her. As her assistant, she's doing her best in looking out for her to the point of being codependent because that's how bad she wants to help. Thankfully, it took exposing Miles to get needed improvement. Without question, Dave Bautista made Duke equally egotistical compared to Miles because he assumes he can do what he wants as a man and that's it. I mean the guy even coerced his girlfriend to cheat on him just to try getting what he wants before asserting to blackmail. His death was his own doing because he should've known as well you can't always get what you want just because you want it. Having said that, Whiskey was her own victim because Madelyn Cline does portray her to be cunning in her own way since she admits she was using Duke to make her platform. Even though she was using him, she did not like being used. Like everyone else, she was just figuring out how to be her own person and it became fitting that it took an outsider to convince and the rest of the group to do just that. Janelle Monae is quite transcendent because she fools us too in playing two people when she assume she's only being one. The main hint of Helen being Andi was when she breaks the box rather than crack it, foreshadowing how she would defeat Miles. She is excellent in playing two sides of the coin so well. Helen was morally upright whereas based on the flashbacks, Andi was a strategic lady who knew her limits in success. Putting aside the danger of Klear, she knew the Disruptors didn't need that level of success because there was no need to go past the blueprints Alpha was all about. Helen knew better than anyone her sister would not go down without a fight and never take her life when being defeated, thus going out of her way to seek help of a familiar protagonist. Daniel Craig returning as Benoit Blanc was all that was needed to make this thing work as he still uses his eccentricity and charm to an advantage in uncovering the truth. He goes out of his way to help Helen the way he does because he believes her and with her story, collaboration would be the key to uncovering the truth. When he gives up once there was a loss of evidence, it was his way to step back and let Helen take the lead in the compromise in making Miles lose everything. And when everyone had nothing to lose, that was all that was needed to do the right thing for once. With the intent to reveal the truth, i hope everyone finds content with whatever comes after. While I respect this movie a lot for being very different, there were multiple things that confused me story wise and still make me prefer the predecessor. Going from the top, miles should’ve brought a manifest for his efficient employee (Ethan Hawke) if he didn’t want non Disruptors to tag along. He doesn’t even give Helen/Andi the COVID shot that approves her for the trip. If he did offscreen, it’s weird how it ain’t mentioned. It then gets off putting for Duke to not correct Miles about when they ran into each other around the time Andi died. Since Duke didn’t know yet what happened to Andi until after dinner, it’s a surprise he didn’t correct him. He doesn’t even Helen/Andi about it just after he admitted he went to her home after he got the mail of the napkin. If he told Claire about it, I don’t see a reason for Helen/Andi to not know as well. Also if Miles wanted Blanc to be comfortable, he could’ve told him the gardens were smokeless since he didn’t have any signs. He even messes up keeping Duke’s phone after hiding it during the outage. And I know Blanc doesn’t want Miles to know he knows about Andi’s death yet until he gets concrete evidence, but if he wants to get in his head enough for him to confess, he could’ve mentioned her motive to kill him for real. The one true mistake he makes is saying Helen’s name aloud before she gets shot. Even if he’s sure no one was around, he’s lucky the shooter that was Miles didn’t catch it. Then it felt strange for him to talk about the journal in public at a restaurant. Even if they’re in an outdoor table, they’re not the only customers, so they’re far from discreet. The crazy thing is that not one of the Disruptors remember Duke’s allergy until Blanc points it out. I’d be a little embarrassed if I was Whiskey because if Blanc is gonna point out he was poisoned, she could’ve made the suggestion before him. Also, Claire messes up not talking to Lionel about Klear sooner if she’s as worried as him. Hell, the latter even could’ve told her about the dangers of it without waiting for her if he knew how bad it was. And in all honesty, why didn’t anyone else email Andi back before visiting her home? Claire’s excuse was being a politician, so I can’t stand the others didn’t have one right when she had hers ready. Ignore this, then you’ll still enjoy this movie on its own. In short, Glass Onion is an amazing stand alone whodunnit for being able to keep you guessing in a whole other setting. If you got Netflix and whodunnits are your jam, see this now.