'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' Review

Overhead words

I could (metaphorically) sit here and word and reword my way around determining why Glass Onion underwhelms, but I realize that goes against the core of the titular concept - don't focus on the layers when you can see right through to the center. Characters feel thin and most virtually vanish from the second act onward, and few of their attempted jokes land. There's a cute play on sights previously seen which pokes on dialogue reliance, but otherwise the bulk of the film is an nonstop avalanche of verbal exposition and explanation, all without the energy that made the first film a breezy delight. The identity of the perpetrator is so numbingly obvious, the whodunit part of the whodunit movie ends up feeling like its weakest twist. Carried by the charisma of Norton and Craig, the film otherwise feels very much bears Rian Johnson's more negative earmarks, in that while it has aspirations to deeper satirization and themes, the actual project strives much too pointedly to create the appearance of layers, when in actuality you can see right through to the.... well, you probably know where I'm going with this...