Directed by: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Janelle Monae, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom, Jr., Madelyn Cline
Glass Onion contains the same qualities which made its predecessor Knives Out (2019) successful. It follows the rules of whodunits with the super-intelligent, offbeat detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) at its center unraveling not one, but possibly two murders on a remote Greek island owned by zillionaire Miles Bron (Norton).
During the height of the 2020 COVID pandemic, Miles invites several of his closest friends (or are they frenemies?) to a weekend at his mansion on the island where he will host a murder mystery party in which he will be the victim. Somehow, Blanc is invited even though he has never met Miles, and this amps up the intrigue in Miles' eyes. The party guests are: Controversial fashion model Birdie Jay (Hudson) who can't stop posting racist tweets, Connecticut governor Claire Debella (Hahn) who is in the middle of a Senate race, muscled influencer Duke Cody (Bautista) who boasts about male superiority, his girlfriend Whiskey (Cline) who may have eyes for Miles, scientist Lionel Touissant (Odom, Jr.) who receives round-the-clock faxes from his employer, who happens to be Miles, and Cassandra Brand (Monae), who was once Miles' business partner but was pushed out after a series of legal wranglings by Miles and left nearly broke.
Each of these people (with the exception of Blanc) has a reason to want Miles dead and also a reason to ensure he stays alive. The mansion itself is a triumph of wretched excess with Miles presenting it to his guests with part braggadocio and part "look how much better I am than you are" snobbery. Blanc's arrival on the island is met with as much welcomeness as when Hercule Poirot boarded the Orient Express. What I enjoy about writing reviews like this one is that I don't have to expound on the plot too much because of potential spoilers. Everything could be construed as one, but I will say Glass Onion, like the title reveals (and inspired heavily by the Beatles song), has more than one layer to peel back to reveal the truth. The ending and resolution is not quite as successful as the buildup, but like Knives Out, Glass Onion is a lot of fun.
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