Originally, I was going to skip this sequel since I didn’t like “Glass Onion” and I thought “Knives Out” was just OK, but I read glowing reviews from almost everyone else (94% on Rotten Tomatoes) and it happened to be playing at a good movie theater in town. So, I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The first 30-40 minutes of this movie is basically introducing all the “suspects”. Young priest Father Jud Duplenticy (John O’Conner) gets assigned to the church “Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude” in upstate New York where Monsignor Jefferson Wicks has a strong hold of his small flock. Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close) who oversees all the church business, groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Hayden Church), Dr Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), novelist Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), professional cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), and MAGA hopeful and social media influencer Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack). The priest doesn’t care about anyone else – insulting any new visitors to the church during his homily until they get mad enough to leave. He also doesn’t care about the new priest but is unsuccessful in making him leave. The group of people are equally dedicated to him – or are afraid of him. When the new priest holds a bible meeting and the group learns that the monsignor won’t be there, they all quickly leave.
Finally, the actual murder happens when the Monsignor walks into a side room during a mass and dies a minute later. The room has no windows or other exits and everyone else is standing outside of the room. Enter Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) who apparently is asked to come and figure out the murder by the young chief of police Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis). Benoit almost immediately asks the young priest to accompany him on his investigation since everyone else thinks the priest is the killer.
The movie seems to be relying on all the character backstories to fill in the lack of plot in the movie. Everyone in the cast except Benoit Blanc and the police chief (who just seems to be waiting around for Benoit to tell her who to arrest) has a backstory. Even the church has a backstory – the church doesn’t have any decorations in it, not even a big cross. However, most of the backstories are thin. You can’t make a character more complex just by giving them a backstory (writer/director Rian Johnson should have learned that from the “Glass Onion” movie).
Other than all the backstories, the storyline is very generic. I’ve seen it before. The person getting killed in a room with only one entrance or exit that has several people right outside is an old murder plotline. They even mention that a book (that the flock has read) mentions the ways that someone can die in that situation. If you remove all the religious themes in the movie, you can almost say that the movie is based on previous movies, books, or TV shows (I believe the TV series “Columbo” has had a character like every one of the characters in the flock).
The storyline is also very predictable. I’m not going to give any spoilers but there is one example that isn’t a spoiler. The social media hopeful Cy is always recording what he sees, so eventually Benoit wants to see what he has recorded when the flock has a meeting the young priest wasn’t allowed in. The rest of the group are so surprised that he recorded the meeting – although he is ALWAYS RECORDING what is happening.
I do admit that there is some clever dialogue – including a joke about the murder “becoming a movie and ending up on Netflix” and there is also some clever cinematography in the movie (like the last movie) but it’s not enough to make me enjoy the movie (despite a person sitting a few feet away from me that seemed to be loudly laughing during even the slightest joke). Also, the cast has very good actors that play their parts well (except for a bit of overacting in a couple scenes). However, that’s not enough for me to recommend the movie.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 