Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

I was very fortunate to catch this at the cinema before it heads to NetFlix….Love the fact that Daniel Craig isn’t afraid to play against type and adopts an extraordinary accent. Channeling Poirot, Craig’s Benoit Blanc is seemingly out of his depth when invited to a luxurious island run by an Elon Musk style rich guy Miles Bron, who it seems wants to play murder mystery with all the friends he’s annoyed and ripped off over the years. As Blanc points out ‘and now he’s put the idea of murdering him into their heads’…Very Agatha Christie at this point.

A smart conceit of the film is that they set the action during 2020 when people are locked down, masked and avoiding hugs (or not). Kate Hudson’s model is clearly partying not bubbling — I’m sure there’s wine and cheese involved in this ‘work meeting’. The guests are invited to travel to their friend’s Greek island for a weekend. Clearly getting an early dose of Pfizer, once the group are trapped on the palatial island sans masks, an unexpected murder happens, and the hunt is on to work out who dunnit.

Plots within plots (and hidden connections and relationships), and set within a dazzling Glass Onion villa which cries out for a Bond villain, nothing is quite what it seems and I truly didn’t see the denouement coming. The title also links back to the bar where most of the friends met, which will become more important later on. Appearing to have solved the original murder mystery easily and ruined the weekend (as well as being an uninvited guest) has Benoit met his match or is he also indulging in some smart skullduggery?

I like the invites at the beginning (hidden within giant puzzle boxes); which if the guests can find them, request that they solve their friend’s murder…and state their dietary requirements. Particularly the mother who could easily resolve the puzzle issues! Astoundingly the Mona Lisa is also paying a visit to the modernist villa, but will it be for long?

Very funny too to see Craig subverting his Bond in the sea by bathing in the most fastidious of 1930s inspired bathing suits and always wearing a natty knotted cravat. Kate Hudson is pretty much her type character, only really going for it this time! Unlike Knives Out, the characters this time all seem more of types and ramped up to the max; it does feel much more novelistic, indeed theatrical. Very extreme ending, but lots of fun! (such as the cigar smoking Benoit who keeps setting off smoke alarms in the garden) Surprising not gory at all by today’s movie standards! (unless you are an art lover)….