Wednesday takes the poster of the police comedy Glass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery (Glass Onion. A story at loggerheads), in which Daniel Craig takes over the role of detective Benoît Blanc. In the lists of upcoming films, this production constantly returned among the most anticipated of 2022. This, because the first opus of what is now a series was a beautiful and big surprise success in 2019. This time, if said success repeats itself, no one will be surprised. Indeed, this second part is delightful and ingenious at will.
We will remember that Knives Out was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It was sweet revenge for writer and director Rian Johnson, whose previous film, The Last Jedi (The Last Jedi), had turned out to be the most divisive of the saga Star Wars. The final episode commissioned from JJ Abrams, Rise of Skywalker (The Rise of Skywalker), was akin to a disavowal.
In short, this is perhaps what explains why, for his next film, Knives OutJohnson would have decided to return to his first love, that is the detective film mixed with pastiche: for the record, his first film, the excellent Brig, is an adolescent and modern transposition, but with old-world talk, of classic noir novels like those of Dashiell Hammett. For its part, what should henceforth be called “ the cinematic universe Knives Out pays homage to the whodunit in general, and to Agatha Christie in particular.
Again, we are in the presence of a group of guests gathered in a vast property, with murder(s) at stake. The future suspects are former college buddies reunited on a private Greek island: Claire, a prominent politician (Kathryn Hahn), Lionel, a top scientist (Leslie Odom Jr.), Birdie, an ex-model businesswoman (Kate Hudson), Duke, a masculinist influencer (Dave Bautista), and Miles, a multi-billionaire high-tech tycoon (Edward Norton), who is also the master of the house.
Add the assistants and other lovers… Without forgetting Cassandra (Janelle Monáe), in conflict with Miles for a reason that we will keep silent.
However, as on the menu of this reunion, a “murder and mystery” evening is planned, the famous detective Benoît Blanc is in the game. This will come in handy when a corpse invites itself to the party. To reveal more would spoil the fun. And fun, there is.
Sharp replicas
I have to say that Glass Onion respects the unspoken rule of the sequels, which consists in taking up and amplifying what worked the time before: the plot is even more (delightfully) convoluted, the action, even more (furiously) incredible, and the satire, even more (tremendously) sharp.
As in Knives Out, Rian Johnson hits all the stops with his dialogues: the replies fuse, sharp, hilarious, and full of acuity in what they note, deplore or denounce. Because, after having attacked social inequities and the insidious racism linked to them, Rian Johnson fires red balls at the ultra-rich: this “club of the 1%” which has too much, but wants more.
Moreover, given the recent escapades of Elon Musk, Glass Onion suddenly seems almost moderate in the parodic accents instilled in the character of Miles, whom Edward Norton plays with obvious delight.
As for the star of the film, Daniel Craig, who was looking for his bearings in Knives Out, he dominates effortlessly, passing from the tongue-in-cheek repartee to the untimely burst of emotion with ease and accuracy. After being supported by an immigrant nurse suspected of murder in Knives Out, his detective joins this time the contest of Cassandra, the pariah of the gang. Obviously, Rian Johnson likes women who refuse to let things go, the marginalized, the excluded…
In this regard, it is not surprising that the author decided, after keeping the question vague, to establish that Benoît Blanc is queer. The filmmaker himself having revealed the thing before the release of the film, we will simply specify that this information is delivered during a nice scene featuring a very well-known actor whose filmo contains an emblematic gay film.
Staggering dynamism
The only downside compared to Glass Onion is that the cast, star-studded as it is, is on the whole less memorable than that of Knives Outwhere everyone shone, without exception.
In this sequel, apart from Craig and Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson and especially Janelle Monáe pull out of the game. On the other hand, Leslie Odom Jr. and the usually priceless Kathryn Hahn are a little “tapestry”.
The brilliance of the watch mechanism designed by Johnson and the dizzying dynamism of its staging more than compensate for this slight weakness. And, yes, Benedict Blanc will be back in a third film for more dark homicidal machinations, with Netflix having paid Rian Johnson US$469 million for two sequels: sweet revenge, that too.