The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery ★★★

Much like the titular vegetable, The Glass Onion is a film of many layers. While some of the opening scenes may seem superfluous, their cause becomes clear later in the film as backstories are revealed and scenes are replayed.

If you missed the original Knives Out movie, fear not: written and directed once again by Rian Johnson, this is Agatha Christie for the noughties market, and the only character retained from that film is the Southern States detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig. Five friends are sent mysterious boxes from a sixth member of their group, Miles Bron (Edward Norton), inviting them to a murder mystery weekend on his Greek island. Blanc appears to have also been sent a box as an invite but it turns out that his presence has, in fact, been requested by one of the group anticipating an actual murder … but which one?!

The locations are beautiful, the costumes are fabulous, but the film lacks the emotional attachment that the original had. Most of the characters are pretty unlikeable; and when it appears that Blanc has solved the mystery an hour into the film, you do wonder where it is going to go from there! However, that is where it really starts to get interesting, and it seems unfortunate that the previous hour has been ‘wasted’ on background.

There are a number of pointed references to Covid – while this was filmed during the pandemic, fleeting mask wearing seems shoehorned in to make a point.

While entertaining and with some genuinely good twists, this is a film that feels too small for the big screen. Perhaps it will read better when it arrives on Netflix?