“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, which Netflix has just uploaded to its platform, takes more time: it is two hours and twenty, because that is another of the current variants. Few big-budget, star-studded movies fall below that length. That detail is one of the many things that would surprise the queen of the genre today, Agatha Christie: but the film’s prologue would surprise her much more, full of digital effects, split screens, zooms and the most sophisticated technological gizmos whose sole purpose is introduce the viewer into a story already covered by her in her novel “Ten little blacks” (which today should not be called that but “And then there was no one left”, as the 1945 René Clair film was also titled, which was based on she).
But attention: here is an important modification. Now, the eccentric guests on a Greek island will not die one after the other, but the owner of the place, the millionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has summoned them for a strange inverse “game”, in which the only one dead will be him. same. It is a trap, of course, but that insight that was spoken of before is still not required of the viewer. There will be time for it.
The futuristic mansion on the island in question is called the Glass Onion, the Crystal Onion (homage to the 1968 Beatles song), a residence with that shape, full of works of art from all times (many in the July style). Le Parc) including… the original Mona Lisa. Yes, the Mona Lisa itself. The action happens to take place during the covid-19 pandemic, and Bron is such a billionaire that he borrowed the painting from the Louvre in exchange for certain favors he granted the French state. Second call to attention: this is not the only nonsense of the film. There are others, but to continue in the game it is necessary to extreme the “suspension of disbelief”.
The detective on the case is Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), just like in the initial -and superior- film by Rian Johnson “Between Knives and Secrets” (2019). Let’s point out, in passing, one of the funniest things about the script: Hugh Grant appears in a supporting role as Blanc’s partner. This is an audacity that Agatha Christie would never have accepted for such a close and ambiguous relationship between Hercule Poirot and his faithful captain Hastings, much less Arthur Conan Doyle to define that of Sherlock Holmes with Dr. Watson. Now there is no problem, on the contrary. It contributes to the diversity of the film. Blanc, then, will be in charge not only of removing, layer by layer, the onion crystals to get to the heart of the matter (the dead man, of course, is not Bron), but also of elucidating the authentic link between the guests at the island (a governor, an influencer, a former powerful model, an Elon Musk-style businessman, etc.). The denouement, prior to an apocalyptic scene, is also old-fashioned: the detective gives an explanatory, didactic speech before the suspects, where it is recently revealed whether or not the spectator’s hunch was correct. As it was said in the Bible, new wine in old wineskins, or the 19th century in digital format.
As Netflix spares no expense, in minor roles, and some uncredited, figures such as Serena Williams, Ethan Hawke, Yo-Yo Ma (he gives the name of a Bach work that one of the characters does not know) and the already disappeared Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury.
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, USA, 2022). Dir. R. Johnson. Int.: D. Craig, E. Norton, J. Monáe. (Netflix).
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
