Peeling back the layers of this whodunit fun, indulgent

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This article was published 22/11/2022 (1400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the 2017 remake of Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh attempted to revive the locked-room ensemble mystery by injecting lots of technical razzle-dazzle to the genre, the master thespian weirdly ignoring the genre’s drawing power has always been a careful assembly of stars striking sparks off each other in an enclosed setting.

It was the release of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out in late 2019 that truly refreshed the mystery movie template wherein a homicide requires a brilliant detective to assemble all the suspects in a fixed space to suss out a killer.

Johnson’s most successful strategy was to allow post-Trump topicality into the mix. His household of plutocrat suspects pitted rich liberals against rich conservatives, with the fate of Ana de Armas’s immigrant nurse held in the balance, an elegant summation of American Jenga power dynamics on the brink of a tumble.

The sequel remains topical, in a different way. For starters, we, along with the plummy master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, clearly enjoying the new franchise character more than he did Bond) are smack in the middle of the COVID epidemic.

But the rich are different than you and me, so tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) extends invitations to a selection of his influential friends to a private bash on his own lavishly appointed Greek island. Here, a puffer of medicinal mist administered at port of entry to each guest takes pandemic worries out of the equation. (Johnson, who directed the Star Wars entry The Last Jedi, makes this the film’s most significant fantasy element.)

Among the guests, fashion provocateur Birdie (Kate Hudson), ambitious politician Claire (Kathryn Hahn), ripped social media influencer Duke (Dave Bautista), tech genius Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), and finally Miles’ disgruntled former partner Cassandra (Janelle Monáe).

In the interests of playing fair with the mystery, let’s leave it at that, plot-wise. Suffice it to say, the movie matches Knives Out for intricacy of plot and scalpel-sharp satire. (The most delightful bit of topicality is a revelation about tech edgelords that rings especially pertinent amid the current Elon Musk/Twitter controversy. You’ll know it when you hear it.)

Craig, as mentioned, delights in a character miles removed from Bond, yet still, in his way, cool: as formidable intellectually as Bond was physically. Monáe may have the most challenging role here, as she handles that particular double-edged sword with aplomb. Kate Hudson seems to be embracing the obnoxiousness that lurked beneath her rom-com persona to nice effect. And Hahn, playing to her sardonic specialty, is as acidic as always.

The film is destined for a Netflix berth on Dec. 23, a nice Christmas gift for subscribers.

But be assured it’s worth seeing on a big screen, if only for one week of availability. Johnson’s favourite cinematographer Steve Yedlin (who is currently working on the Winner shoot here in Manitoba) offers crisp yet droll images of self-indulgence that are still wish-I-was-there enticing (murders notwithstanding).

The puzzle-box production design by Rick Heinrichs is an absolute delight.

One more rather poignant attraction: The film offers what may be one last filmic parting glance at Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury, albeit in a throwaway gag.

Sondheim’s presence is especially significant. The musical master was also an enthusiastic mystery maker. Glass Onion very much pays homage to Sondheim’s screenplay (in partnership with Anthony Perkins) of the 1973 whodunit The Last of Sheila in which a millionaire invites his dubious friends aboard a yacht for a deadly game of whodunit. Any similarity is doubtless lovingly intended.

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