In this follow up to 2019’s Knives Out, Rian Johnson brings us
another murder mystery with his ambiguously Southern detective, Benoit
Blanc.
I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Knives Out, but it is certainly entertaining and twisty. Because the movie is set during the height of the pandemic, certain moments already feel a bit dated, but it does provide some interesting fun moments and character development. The locations are amazingly beautiful and certainly make you think about a long weekend somewhere in the Greek islands. Johnson does a great job with a twisty story that appears one way the first time you watch it, then actually insists you go back and watch it again to see if you missed something or if a character is misleading you when recounting what just happened. The cast is all wonderful, but the characters are so terrible that it is hard to find someone to root for amongst the guests. How are all these odd lunatics the very best of friends? Sometimes, you do not need a reason!
Daniel Craig once again does an inexplicable accent. What I found interesting is that we get a small peek at Blanc’s home life at the beginning of the story. I wish in those moments, he had not been using the accent – just speaking normally. Then, once on the job, he puts on that horrible southern accent as a tool to appear less threatening to whoever he is investigating.
Edward Norton feels like he is playing a version of several notable tech-billionaires and his smarmy arrogance fits this role perfectly. As all his friends/guests, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline are all just over-the-top enough to keep the audience guessing as guilt shifts between them. They each have a plausible motive, and each are absolutely terrible, so it could be any of them!
The scene-stealer in this for me was Janelle Monaé.
She had the most heavy lifting to do, the best story arc, and the most wide
range of comedy and drama to cover. She was wonderful and definitely stood out
from the others.
There were also piles and piles of cameos – so much so that
it was nearly distracting. I didn’t need to know that Blanc is so famous he
just zooms with other super famous people while in the bathtub. Again, shot during the pandemic allowed that
to play into the story and into the shooting, but I found it unnecessary.
Overall, the movie is smart and silly, fun and interesting, and while most of the
characters are terrible, the cast was doing a great job of making them easy to
dislike. I am happy I saw this on Netflix, I think I would have liked it less
had I saw it in the theater.
6 out of 10
