The Knives Out films have been a lot of fun. Despite Rian Johnson not being popular in certain circles because they believe he ruined Star Wars with The Last Jedi. The first Knives Out was a lot of fun and I thought that Glass Onion was when they realised they had hit on the American version of an Agatha Christie. The film has another high-level cast with not only Daniel Craig but Josh O’Connor plays Jud Duplenticy, Glenn Close as Martha, Josh Brolin as Jefferson Wicks, Mila Kunis as Geraldine Scott, Jeremy Renner as Nat Sharp, Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, Cailee Spaeny as Simone and Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven.
After Jefferson Wicks is killed in a seemingly empty room, Benoit Blanc is brought in to see who did it. Duplenticy is an outsider in every possible way as he says he wants to get rid of Wicks who at this point has gone slightly mad. The main mystery is who killed Wicks but then there is another mystery of how Wicks’ body ended up in Nat Sharp’s basement. The revelation felt a bit convoluted and it didn’t need to be like that. The mystery of who killed him was solved and then there was the mystery of how Wicks seemed to rise from the dead and that was a bit more interesting.
The performances were all really good. Daniel Craig seems to be having the time of his life playing Benoit Blanc. His post Bond career seems good with this series and whilst the Foghorn Leghorn impression was reigned back a bit in this one it still felt like he was having fun. Josh O’Connor plays the plucky sidekick very well. Glen Close is the funniest I have ever seen her. There is one moment where penis’ have been drawn on the mausoleum and Martha thinks they are rocket ships. That got a big laugh in the screening I was in. She has a quiet two thirds and then when the truth about the missing stone takes centre stage then she becomes more important and shows how good she can be especially in her final scene. Josh Brolin is very good as Jefferson and makes a rather cliched character quite interesting. Jeremy Renner and Andrew Scott are fine but they dont really have much to do. Neither does Cailee Spaeny who does provide us with another laugh when she gets up to pick something up and it makes Martha shriek and then Simone responds saying that she CAN walk but it does hurt. Cy Draven does feel like a character created to reference the way the world is now but in 10-15 years might be outdated. Thankfully Daryl McCormack makes it to be an interesting character although does come across as a bit of a trust fund baby being focused on wanting the missing stone to get rich did feel like an afterthought.
This is the weakest of the series so far. I don't think it was terrible by any means but compared to the other two it just felt like it lacked something and I highly doubt that this will be the last one I do think that this is a mis-step in the series but every series has at least one. The film is two and a half hours long and it doesn't need to be that length. They spent way too long introducing all the characters and whilst its important to say who is who and why they matter to the story it didn’t need to go on as long. This felt like a bit of indulgence on Johnson’s part. It is clear that Johnson and Craig enjoy doing these films and providing they still do them for the love of doing them instead of that sweet Netflix paycheck.