Miles Bron (Edward Norton), CEO of tech company Alpha, sent his old friends an invitation to join him for a murder mystery weekend on his luxurious estate called the Glass Onion, in a private island in Greece. The group included Alpha head scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom, Jr.), Connecticut governor Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), fashion designer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), and men's rights vlogger Duke Cody (Dave Bautista).
Despite a history of bad blood between them, Bron also sent deposed former Alpha CEO Cassandra "Andi" Brand (Janelle Monae) an invitation, and she unexpectedly attended much to the surprise of the other guests. An invitation also made its way to ace detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) whose presence stirred the interest of the group because this was his first time to be invited to one of Bron's elaborate parties.
The set-up of this particular murder mystery was reminiscent of some famous Agatha Christie classic novels, like "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile." In these, a group of people were gathered together in one isolated place where a murder would later take place. Further investigation would then reveal that all of these people had a motive to kill the murder victim. The detective would then figure out the complex solution.
Writer-director Rian Johnson brings back the flamboyant detective hero of his first "Knives Out" film, Benoit Blanc, back for another adventure. On top of the Agatha Christie formula, Johnson gave this new story his own interesting twists. The fictional murder mystery Miles had planned for his guests was solved within the first hour, with still another hour for Blanc to go on to solve the real murder mystery that really transpired.
To add further fun, Johnson also had several celebrities to make cameos, like Angela Lansbury, Stephen Sondheim, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Yo-Yo Ma, Serena Williams, Ethan Hawke and Hugh Grant. There were also plenty of celebrity namedrops, like "Gone Girl" author Gillian Flynn (who wrote Bron's murder mystery), Jared Leto (who contributed his signature Kombucha) and Jeremy Renner (who had his own brand of hot sauce).
This new adventure had a very different feel from "Knives Out" with the comedy more over-the-top and out-there (especially with Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista's crazy characters). Daniel Craig is really making his Benoit Blanc as far from his James Bond as possible. Janelle Monae deserves her awards buzz for her turn as the femme fatale. The climax was one big Grand Guignol mess of glass and fire, with the Mona Lisa caught in its midst. 8/10.
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