Glass Onion Director Rian Johnson Solves A Mystery About Benoit Blanc
Warning: minor spoiler ahead for "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" (the spoiler is unrelated to the movie's main mystery plot).
In case you haven't heard, "Glass Onion" is great. Rian Johnson's follow-up to his raucously fun murder mystery "Knives Out" has been getting rave reviews out of the film festival circuit, and after seeing it at London Film Festival today I can attest that it's a hilarious, twisty, tightly-plotted rollercoaster ride with not a minute of its runtime wasted. Johnson referred to it as such during the press conference that followed, explaining that his main goal with "Glass Onion" was to make something entertaining: "[It's a] rollercoaster ride, not a crossword puzzle."
Daniel Craig returns as mastermind detective Benoit Blanc, who this time packs his warm southern drawl and extensive vocabulary into a suitcase and sails off to a private island in Greece. There, tech billionaire Miles (Edward Norton) has gathered a group of his oldest and closest friends for an annual get-together in the form of a murder mystery game. It isn't long, however, before murder and mystery stop being just a game.
Not much was revealed about Benoit Blanc's home life in "Knives Out," but in "Glass Onion" we learn that Benoit has a tendency to get very depressed and directionless when he doesn't have an interesting case to work on — not unlike his fellow famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. But whereas Sherlock Holmes dealt with his listlessness by smoking opium, Benoit deals with his by spending an unhealthy amount of time in the bath. When someone comes calling at the door, Benoit is too busy soaking/sulking to answer it. Fortunately, he doesn't live alone.
Benoit Blanc is gay (and coupled up)
The scene in question is a brief but delightful window into Benoit Blanc's domestic life, which he shares with a man who seems accustomed to the odd behavior that comes with Blanc's brand of genius. We won't spoil the actor who plays Benoit Blanc's partner, but it's a great cameo. There is some ambiguity as to their relationship in "Glass Onion" itself, mainly due to Benoit's beau referring to him as "Blanc" rather than by his first name. However, it turns out that's just an adorable quirk of their relationship.
"Yes, he obviously is," Rian Johnson replied firmly when asked whether Benoit Blanc is gay or if "Glass Onion" was merely doing a bit of queerbaiting. As mentioned above, "Glass Onion" is very tightly plotted and almost every second of the film is tied to the central mystery rather than offshoots or subplots, so we only get the briefest of looks at Benoit when he's not solving mysteries. But with another sequel already on the way, courtesy of Netflix, hopefully we haven't seen the last of Benoit Blanc's home life.
"Glass Onion" will have a one-week theatrical run in the U.S. from November 23 to 29, 2022, before making its way to Netflix on December 23, 2022.