“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” premieres next month on Netflix. Meantime, it’s playing for just a few days in a few hundred theaters nationwide, despite the theatrical success of the 2019 film preceding this one. There you have it: In late 2022, the mysteries of motion picture distribution rival any of the plotting afoot in writer-director Rian Johnson’s sequel.
Like the first, the second stars Daniel Craig as the Southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc, this time turning his powers of detection toward a murder mystery party thrown by a tech giant billionaire on his own private Greek island. Call it “Mamma Mia! There’s a corpse!”
We’ll attempt to keep the premise description free from spoiler contaminants. The title “Glass Onion” refers to the roundish crystal wonder of a bachelor pad owned by billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). Every year, he invites the same few friends and acolytes for a weekend of insidious wealth among his pals, the “disrupters.” They include a tightly wound Connecticut governor (Kathryn Hahn); a blithely offensive model/“influencer” (Kate Hudson); a pistol-packing “men’s movement” internet star (Dave Bautista) and his girlfriend, Whiskey (Madelyn Cline); and a brilliant scientist (Leslie Odom Jr.) who works for Bron. Detective Blanc receives an invite as well, for reasons not immediately clear.
There’s another guest: Bron’s former business partner Andi, played by the ensemble standout, the supremely easygoing scene-stealer Janelle Monáe. Bron openly acknowledges that he has made his share of enemies in his claw to the top. He promises he’ll “play” the victim in the murder plot about to unfold. But, of course, these things have a way of turning deadly-deadly, not pretend-deadly.
“Knives Out” dealt with old-money rotters in a grand old mansion, though many other settings accommodated a lot of satisfying variety and movement in the telling of that mystery. Same with “Glass Onion,” which deals with new-money rotters concerned with branding, followers and, in Bron’s case, sinister tech developments. Bron’s eager to put his latest idea into practice; it’s new-generation hydrogen fuel, nice and clean (his company is called Klear) that could change the world. Or end it. He seems relatively comfortable with either outcome.
The script takes a deft switchback around its midpoint. Then it crisscrosses around the main line with a string of explanatory flashbacks illustrating what we missed when we thought we knew what was up earlier in the movie. Some of this is work; a lot of it is fun. Much of the first film’s wit and willingness to play roughly 77% fair with the audience, while having serious fun with the whodunit genre, has been retained in “Glass Onion.” I like the relative ratio of deduction to violence, and of laughs to jolts. Besides being unusually light-fingered in depicting those first few months of the pandemic, Johnson comes to this project with a sense of whodunit tradition that works differently for different audiences, different generations.
There are times in “Glass Onion” when the narrative’s rhythm and momentum feel less than certain. And while Craig’s performance is pretty delightful, as written, Blanc remains a bit of a cipher, sometimes indistinctly characterized. This, to me, is the one mystery I can’t solve regarding all I admire and genuinely like in both “Knives Out” films. Blanc feels one draft, one rewrite away from a truly distinctive creation. Easier said than done; meantime, Craig’s filling in the blancs very nicely indeed.
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” — 3 stars (out of 4)
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MPA rating: PG-13 (for strong language, drug content, some violence and sexual material)
Running time: 2:19
How to watch: In theaters through Nov. 29 only. Netflix streaming premiere Dec. 23.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @phillipstribune
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