Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
A Rian Johnson Whodunit.
When it comes to new years, nobody ever knows what they will hold. One could say that there’s a lot of mystery involved with the closing of the old year and introduction of the new, and tonight we’ll play off that. You know I love to find my superficial reasons to watch movies that I’d want to watch anyways, but most the time it turns out fine doesn’t it? Let’s all agree with the director and leave the subtitle out, tonight we visit the Glass Onion.
Like, I get it - the “A Knives Out Mystery” is there so people can go “oh, it’s one of those movies!” It feels somewhat tacky though, as you would think if anything it would be a “Blanc” mystery, since that’s the character that floats between them - similar to if it was a Nancy Drew book, or Scooby Doo movie, but in the long run that’s irrelevant to the movie itself. A new mystery is in town, one with so many layers it’s a veritable onion, and one incredible detective is on the case. A group of friends reunite on their super rich friend’s island for a time of fun and games - specifically a murder mystery game. Problem is, this game ends up being a lot more than a game when someone does in fact end up dead. Now it’s up the to detective to once again put his brain on overdrive and solve just what happened and why.
It’s a pretty vague and brief plot section, I know - but this is a murder mystery! You can’t just go into detail without ruining a lot of things, and quite frankly it’s part of the funnest part of the movies to try and figure out who did what and why. The characters are all given motives for things, and they all have their own little personalities to help back everything up. Some might be more annoying than others, but each speaks to a bit of a personality type and does in fact feel like their own believable person - even if it’s all played up a bit more than what one would normally see. The streamer, the dumb famous, the clean scientist, the politician - there’s a mix of them there for you to investigate and dissect.
The actors do a great job here. A lot of it feels like it might be amped up for laughs, but nobody feels close to phoning it in. There’s a level of interactions that always feels double-sided, where the characters both feel like friends but also as though they have their own little greedy secrets. It’s a good amount of back and forth that allows for the attentive folks to catch on quick while the actors themselves don’t give too much of anything away. It’s a good crew here, and some of the actors can be a bit more appreciated for their roles as the movie goes on further and things start getting spelled out.
The suspected disrupters.
There isn’t a whole lot to go on about when it comes to effects work. There’s some very limited violence, so things like the normal explosions and gunfights really don’t belong all that much in high quantities within a who-dunnit like this. That said, what we do get is great, and nothing on screen will really take you out of the movie in a meaningful way. The introductory puzzle box is one of the more neat additions, providing both a neat little teamwork montage, a good joke, and also a bit of sampling of layered mystery to come. Even though violence itself is relatively low, there is still a good amount of property destruction, so there is at least that - but I wouldn’t go in to this for action as much as I would for mystery and comedy.
Comedy is always subjective, so mileage will probably vary from person to person. For me, I though the movie was quite well light hearted despite having some serious roles and motives for the characters. It’s not quite the cheesy over-the-top humor of Clue, but it is still quite the giggle creator when it puts out the jokes that hits. I was engaged through most of it, and did find that a few moments stuck out in the laughs department more than others - in particular, there was at least two occasions where one got me pretty good - but I also wouldn’t go as far as to say the entire thing was one big series of constant jokes either.
Audio is done well. I don’t recall the music afterwards, but it very much adds to the mood during. Line deliveries are greatly done, with actors always delivering the intent behind their characters lines when they say them. Balance is also done great, even though there isn’t a whole lot of conflicting noises to do battle with line deliveries in most occasions. The location is a very pretty one, with plenty of extravagant outdoor shots to take a peak at - so there is at least a little eye candy in there to help spruce up things.
One killer dinner party.
I enjoyed this one. I feel like Knives Out was a better mystery with how all the details were presented from the get go. Here, the mystery is good but we aren’t given all the details to fully figure everything out until we get close to the final act. This one is, however, probably the more fun watch on account of things feeling slightly hammed up and with a few really good punch lines. It’s worth a check out, especially if you are a fan of that Clue style movie - although for me, be it nostalgia or just plain solid craftsmanship, it’s pretty hard to dethrone Clue as the most enjoyable in the genre. Solid cast, solid story, good jokes - it’s a good flick to check out.