Crime comedy Glass Onion: Murder is a dangerous hobby

The genre of whodunit crime, which was actually already issued with a death certificate, has experienced a surprising resurgence in cinemas in recent years. Of course, what Raymond Chandler said contemptuously about the classic murder stories, which consist of nothing but conclusions: “You know one, you know all” is true. Their schematic dramaturgy is reminiscent of crossword puzzles.

But when the puzzling is combined with a star cast and exquisite equipment, it can still be fun, as Kenneth Branagh proved with his nostalgic remakes of the Agatha Christie films “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile”.

Even more impressive was the triumph that American director Rian Johnson celebrated with his murder-mystery comedy Knives Out. They gathered all the relatives of a murdered old crime writer at his castle-like country estate, and because everyone benefited from his death, they were all suspects.

The running gags couldn’t have been more clumsy, so the housekeeper vomited every time she lied. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc was a master detective who, like Hercule Poirot, bent over Persian carpets with a magnifying glass to look for footprints. The genre parody grossed more than $310 million worldwide and was one of the five most successful films of 2020 in Germany.

Success calls for a sequel, that’s the rule in Hollywood. That’s why Johnson sends his super-vain but super-smart detective Benoit Blanc on a new investigation in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” only this time Daniel Craig speaks him with an even more rolling Southern accent. In general, it’s obviously about wanting to outdo the previous film in all respects.

Villa with onion dome

This time the scene is a Greek island, on which the eccentric tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has built a high-tech villa with an onion-shaped glass dome. There, old friends he had flown in are supposed to solve a detective riddle. Among them: a feisty internet star (Dave Bautista), posing with Colt in his bathing trunks, an aspiring politician (Kathryn Hahn), but also a programmer (Janelle Monáe) whom he had thrown out of the company they had founded together.

Bron greets her with a serenade on a Paul McCartney guitar, in the living room the “Mona Lisa” borrowed from the Louvre hangs behind bulletproof glass. Of course, the game derails, soon the first guest dies – after a poisoned cocktail that was probably intended for the host.

There’s not much left of the dialog joke from “Knives Out” in “Glass Onion”, for which Johnson again wrote the screenplay. One of the better jokes is that ex-model Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) believes sweatshops actually make sweatshirts.

If the plot has a hole again, the power goes out and then people scream and shoot in the dark. The late actress Angela Lansbury also has a guest appearance. Every episode of her hit series Murder is her Hobby was more exciting. Christian Schroeder

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