You solved it too quickly, Blanc!

★★★ out of ★★★★

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Runtime: 139 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for strong language, some violence, sexual material and drug content.

Considering the controversy after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it must have been a miracle for writer/director Rian Johnson to produce such a highly entertaining film, Knives Out (2019). With a colourful cast and an engaging mystery, it was such a breath of fresh air that the entire movie concluded with a surprising twist that connected all the dots in a fashionable way.

Rian Johnson returns to the Knives Out franchise, with "Glass Onion" (Full title: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery), where he has expanded the cast, lavish setting, the story and its flashbacks, the runtime, and of course, the twists. For the most part, "Glass Onion" is genius. At least it is... right until its questionable conclusion.

"Glass Onion" starts, and very unusually, in a post-pandemic world. There's numerous references to celebrities, common internet and social media trends, the usage of face masks, social distancing, and of course, a sneaky "Among Us" reference where detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) plays the game alongside friends on the video conference application "Zoom". They're all awkward but painfully true in reflecting what kind of life we've been in over the last few years.

Several characters, Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) with Peg (Jessica Henwick), Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) with Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), and Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe) receive a wooden box from tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), that contains numerous puzzles that reveals an invitation card. These are Miles' closest friends, and they have been invited to participate in a game on a private island on Greece, where Miles' "murder" would be committed and they would have to guess the killer.

Strangely enough, Benoit Blanc is also brought on to the island, as he was also sent the wooden box with the invitation card. There is also a weirdly true reunion of the friends as some practice "social distancing" with their friends. The entire group, with Blanc, boards the cruise and arrives at the island, where Miles welcomes them and shows them the extravagant Glass Onion. At dinnertime, Blanc guesses the murderer too quickly, so the tension relaxes, mostly, until a sudden and unexpected death. Immediately, everyone is thrown into panic, and the lights go out. The tension rises. With the killer on the run, Blanc would have to use his sharp detective thinking skills to find out the killer and the motive.

Similar to Knives Out, most of its runtime is top-notch filmmaking. With an airtight story and amounting tension that is well-built in almost every scene, "Glass Onion" is at once intriguing and exhilarating. Rian Johnson knows his craft, laying out expertly captured shots and time jumps that don't serve as a distracting detour, but another layer of the onion.

Most of the cast is also well-utilised, with the noisy and fast-talking Birdie Jay, energetic Peg, bulky Duke with his tag-along Whiskey, cold Andi Brand, charming Miles, and comedic Benoit Blanc, but probably not enough Lionel nor Claire. Still, the ensemble are so entertaining that one hour passes by in a flash.

We also get mid-twists (won't spoil!) that are plentiful and genius. I have seen criticisms that it's a saggy midsection, or an unnecessary detour, but I think it's fantastic in peeling a different layer of the onion. Once again, there are numerous flashbacks to the scenes in the first hour, but with other characters in the same time section, or a different person's perspective. Compared to Knives Out which slowly built up the mystery, the different approach here leaves us with more curiosity about each character's motive to commit the murder.

In addition, it's such a blast to continue watching the other layer of the onion anyways, with absolutely hilarious sequences that I almost fell off the seat. Everything builds and ties up to something extravagant, with accumulating suspense. Each person is a suspect and it's all up to Benoit Blanc to reveal to us the conclusion.

However, to my surprise, the conclusion is slight and a let-down compared to the engaging events before. Its predecessor, Knives Out, contained such a clever twist that Rian Johnson sneakily scattered clues around beforehand. With "Glass Onion", the real killer is revealed in a disappointing way, because as Blanc says, "To risk committing murder after a very public court case, ......, would be an exceedingly stupid thing to do".

"Glass Onion" then veers towards chaos, where it shows off its big budget set pieces, that isn't fully satisfying but nevertheless tolerable. There's also quite the drag here, but alas, its bare conclusion and sudden ending aren't as tight or fun as the first three-quarters.

Other than that, I'm all in to see Blanc once again working on his next case, no matter the revelation.