Rian
Johnson is a guy who is on record as saying he loves to subvert expectations.
This filmmaking quirk resulted in mixed reactions when
it came to his Star Wars outing, The Last Jedi, but when this
same tactic was used in his original murder mystery Knives Out, the
result was universally beloved. Turns out that people still love a good
old-fashioned whodunit, and subverting basic story expectations is a great way
to keep them fresh in our modern world. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
is another wickedly good time that may be a tiny bit more straightforward than
its predecessor but still manages to keep us guessing nearly every minute of
its runtime.
High praise indeed, but as was often
the case the first time I watched the original Knives Out, Glass Onion
also occasionally bored and frustrated me when it was unclear what exactly the
movie was supposed to be. This cinematic duo might just be the only two murder
mysteries in existence that are more enjoyable on repeat viewings when you
already know what is going on, but that’s not to say that Glass Onion still
wasn’t mostly highly entertaining at first watch. It’s one of those movies that
requires your full attention, especially when Daniel Craig is babbling away in
that Foghorn Leghorn accent of his (I still can’t tell if his accent is bad or
if it's just weird to hear it coming out of James Bond’s mouth). Save for
Craig, the ensemble cast is all new and includes such talents as Edward Norton,
Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista, and once again the collection of
interesting and dryly humorous characters that Johnson has whipped up is what
keeps the Knives Out sequel engaging. Are they likeable? Mostly no, as
was the case in the original, but you’ll have fun watching them.
If I have any complaints other than
the few moments between twists that left the purpose of the movie in question,
it would be that the ending was not at all satisfying. It left me feeling a bit
depressed, despite the fact that it was clearly supposed to feel emotionally
triumphant. In addition to this, there were some bizarre red herrings that went
completely unexplained; misdirects are fine and expected in tales such as
these, but I don’t like it when they don’t make sense in their own way or fit
into the overall narrative. Also, did we need all the pandemic/lockdown stuff?
It was a key part of our reality, sure, but it didn’t have any purpose in Glass
Onion’s story and just left me feeling bummed out that such things weren’t
even escapable in fiction. And why tie the narrative to such a specific time
period when the story could have taken place any time in the early twenty-first
century?
But these things pale in comparison
to Glass Onion’s sharp writing, character work, and overall
interesting plot. In this way Rian Johnson did not subvert expectations at
all... he gave me exactly what I wanted.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
is now available on Netflix.
This review was first published in The Keizertimes on
December 30th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/
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