Opinion - Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Spoilers)

Within the first minute of the movie I found myself, maybe unfairly, wondering if the sequel would live up to the standard set by the first one. At the end of 2019, after watching the first Knives Out movie I declared it my favourite movie of the year and my view of Knives out 2 was no different. If there is one movie I will be raving about for a while, it is Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Daniel Craig reprised his role as Southern detective Benoit Blanc and he did not disappoint. His character exhibits a good balance of humour and seriousness.

Director/Writer Rian Johnson has perfected unravelling a number of subplots at the same time, subplots which create strong impressions of the characters involved. With any mystery, the audience cannot help but get involved and try to figure out whodunnit. For the first time in a while I was taken aback by the actual answer. I had a number of theories but none of them were right.

I was not expecting the plot to unfold along the twin sister route but the reactions of certain characters to Helen (Janelle Monáe) began to make sense. I prefer this to the predictable mysteries that are out there, appreciating the genius with hindsight.

The references to the pandemic at the start were kind of pointless as it did not carry on into the rest of the movie or impact the plot in any way. Aside from that, every detail was clearly well thought and contributed to maintaining the tone of the movie.

The Knives Out mysteries have so far surrounded wealthy people and focused on social class disparity. So far, the Knives Out franchise has focused on a wealthy dysfunctional family and toxic friendship circles. It seems this might be a trend for the franchise but it will be interesting to see how the future Knives Out stories are developed.