GLASS ONION : A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY - Tuesday 29th November 2022.

I saw the M rated 'GLASS ONION : A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY' on its final day of its very limited theatrical run earlier this week. This American murder mystery film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Rian Johnson whose previous film making credits take in his big screen debut with 'Brick' in 2005, then 'The Brothers Bloom' in 2008, 'Looper' in 2012, 'Star Wars : Episode VIII - The Last Jedi' in 2017 and 'Knives Out' in 2019, to which this film is a standalone sequel. This film had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September this year and is scheduled to have a one-week limited theatrical release from 23rd November before its streaming release on 23rd December by Netflix. The film saw the widest theatrical release ever for a Netflix film generating US$15M in Box Office receipts towards its production costs of US$40M and garnering universal critical acclaim. 

During the height of the 2020 COVID pandemic when the world is gripped by lockdowns, we are introduced to a group of individuals who all receive a large and strange looking wooden box, with no visible means of gaining entry to it. There is Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jnr.), the head scientist for global tech company Alpha Industries; Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), a former supermodel turned fashion designer; Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), the governor of Connecticut now running for the Senate; Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), a Twitch streamer and men's rights activist; and Cassandra 'Andi' Brand (Janelle Monae), Miles's ex-business partner. Lionel hooks up with the other recipients of the same identical box (for they are all close friends of one another) and together they are able to gain entry into the box revealing an elaborate number of puzzles and games contained therein, with the final reveal being an invitation from billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and owner of Alpha Industries to attend his very own murder mystery weekend at his private estate 'Glass Onion' which is housed on his own private Greek island. Tagging along are also Peg (Jessica Henwick) Birdie's Assistant, and Whiskey (Madelyn Cline) Duke's girlfriend and Twitch channel Assistant. 

World renowned Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired by Andi's identical twin sister, Helen, to investigate her sister's alleged suicide the previous week. Helen advises Blanc that Miles jettisoned Andi from her role as CEO of Alpha Industries after Andi categorically denied his request to release 'Klear', a  hydrogen-based alternative fuel that early tests have proven to be very dangerous under certain conditions. She lost a lawsuit against him due to her inability to prove that she conceived of the company and not Miles. Helen suspects that one of Miles's friends killed Andi after she found a cocktail napkin from the 'Glass Onion' bar that they all used to frequent back in the day, on which she scribbled Alpha's founding ideas, evidence that would discredit Miles. 

Blanc instructs Helen to take Andi's place for the weekend given that they were identical twins and news of Andi's death has still not hit the headlines. Arriving on the island to help him investigate undercover as though they are unknown to each other, Miles informs Blanc that he did not send him an invitation but allows him to stay, assuming that his presence was a joke arranged by one of the other guests. 

On the island, Helen sets about covertly searching for clues that could potentially lead to Andi's killer, but determines that Lionel, Claire, Birdie, and Duke are all suspects. Lionel and Claire had staked their professional reputations to support Klear, only to learn of its dangerous qualities afterward; Birdie was forced by Miles to take responsibility for hiring a sweatshop in Bangladesh to manufacture her clothing line; and Duke was attempting to coerce Miles into giving him a position at Alpha News by using Whiskey to seduce him. 

On the first evening with the weekend ahead of them, Miles lays out plans for his elaborate staged murder mystery in which he is the victim and his guests need to prove who the killer is. But Blanc, before the game has even started, solves the case much to Miles' frustration saying that he even had Gillian Flynn write his murder mystery game, and she doesn't come cheap! 

So the group parties with a number of guests considering returning home the next day. Duke suddenly collapses dead after inadvertently drinking from Miles's glass. The group begins to panic, suspecting the missing 'Andi' to be the killer and discovering that Duke's pistol (which he never goes anywhere without) is missing. Then at 10:00pm right on cue, all the lights across the island go out except for the lighthouse which intermittently illuminates the house and grounds. In the resulting chaos, the group splits up. Blanc bumps into Helen outside on the steps, who has been searching for Andi's cocktail napkin which she believes the killer stole. He instructs her to search Miles's office. An unknown assailant shoots Helen in the chest, but she survives unknown to anyone else but Blanc, due to Andi's diary in her jacket pocket having blocked the bullet. 

Blanc rounds up the remaining group in Miles's art room, where he deduces that Miles committed both murders. After Miles learned of the napkin's existence from Lionel, he had killed Andi to prevent her from revealing it to the public. Immediately following her murder, he was seen speeding away from her house by Duke who was nearly 'pancaked' on his motorcycle, and who deduced Miles's involvement with Andi's death during the party, when his newsfeed revealed her death, and as a consequence he attempted to blackmail Miles. This then prompted Miles to poison Duke with pineapple juice, which Duke was severly allergic to, before using Duke's pistol to shoot Helen. 

Helen finds the napkin in Miles's office and reveals her true identity to the group, but Miles burns the napkin with his cigar lighter as she is holding it. With no evidence against Miles and the group unwilling to side with her, Helen sets about smashing all of Miles's glass sculptures before triggering the Klear-powered mansion to explode. This destroys the Glass Onion and the Mona Lisa, which Miles had on loan from the Louvre, while it was shut due to the pandemic. With Miles's reputation now in tatters due to the worlds most famous painting's being destroyed and Klear being proven as dangerous, the group decides they will testify against him. Helen and Blanc sit on the beach as they watch the Police arrive by boat as the sun rises. 

'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' is very entertaining and I'm pleased to have seen it on the big screen at my local independent movie theatre (which was packed out I might add) rather than waiting for the small screen Netflix release at Christmas. The film shines in almost every aspect from the sun drenched Greek island setting, to all the trappings of a very wealthy tech billionaire, to the performances of the cast to the script, the humour and the direction laid on by Rian Johnson, it hardly misses a beat. This is more than a worthy follow-up to 2019's 'Knives Out' and with double the budget it is clear that no expense was spared in bringing together an ensemble cast lead by the returning Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, and the exotic location that undoubtedly contributed to the film being greater than the sum of its parts and a real crowd pleaser to boot. Also starring in cameo appearances Ethan Hawke, Angela Lansbury, Hugh Grant, Natasha Lyonne, Serena Williams and Stephen Sondheim, amongst a handful of others.

'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-