Glass Onion Features Daniel Craig's Best Performance To Date
This piece contains spoilers for "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."
"Glass Onion" is out in theaters for a limited one-week engagement before heading to Netflix in December, giving us another Benoit Blanc mystery. The follow-up to "Knives Out" features a new cast of suspects and a new exotic setting. The only constants are Writer/Director Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc. Johnson has repeatedly expressed how his love for Agatha Christie propelled him to make his own modern mystery. With that prospect came the need to create an investigator at least as compelling as those Christie created, such as Hercule Poirot.
And thus, Benoit Blanc was born, played brilliantly by Daniel Craig. The James Bond actor has expressed his joy in playing the detective, saying he would want to keep playing Blanc as long as Johnson keeps writing these stories. That love for the character is clearly seen in his performance in both "Knives Out" and "Glass Onion." The inspired collaboration between actor and director has reached new heights with this latest film, which could easily be considered Daniel Craig's best performance to date. "Knives Out" had Daniel Craig in a more traditional role that's expected of most murder mysteries, but in "Glass Onion," there are new layers to the story. Benoit's part in it leads to a much more inspired take on the investigator that subverts the audience's expectations in exciting ways, which all hinges on Craig's performance.
The layers of Benoit Blanc
With the intricate premise of "Glass Onion," Daniel Craig is allowed to add more layers and nuance to his performance than what he had to work with in "Knives Out." Throughout the first hour or so of the film, audiences are led to believe that Blanc has no idea why he received his mysterious invitation to tech magnate Miles Bron's private island. The unassuming nature of Blanc's presence is the kind of subdued Daniel Craig performance that hasn't been seen in his past roles. It's a similar bumbling charm seen in the original "Knives Out" film; only this time, it's an intentional performance put on by Blanc— feeling like Craig is playing the same character in two different ways.
Benoit Blanc arrives at the titular Glass Onion with a secret of his own, with the revelation that he was sent as a hired investigator to help discover who was behind the murder of Cassandra Brand, a death almost everyone on the island is unaware of. This particular reveal in the film is a brilliant change to the structure of the murder mystery that completely changes how you see Daniel Craig's performance in the first hour of the movie. Akin to classic TV detectives like "Columbo," Daniel Craig adds an entirely new layer to Benoit Blanc that feigns ignorance in performance almost as complicated as the script.
A franchise-building performance
Of course, there are also returning traits from "Knives Out" that reinforce Daniel Craig's skills as an actor and show his character as one capable of building a franchise around. Having such talent that you could stick the character in any setting and surround them with a new cast of characters, and it will still have the same charm as its predecessor is no doubt challenging. Luckily, Craig proves to himself and his audiences that he is more than capable in "Glass Onion." Equally challenging is the timeless nature of the sleuths and detectives in franchises like "Knives Out." There isn't the usually expected character development for roles like Benoit Blanc. Still, Daniel Craig returns to the part with confidence and familiarity that wasn't quite there yet in "Knives Out."
Two films into this series (and a third on the way), Craig bounces off various co-stars that make every interaction engaging and inspired. From his machinations and planning with Janelle Monáe's character Helen to the stern deliberations with Edward Norton's character Bron, Craig brings a unique energy that eventually boils over into long-winded metaphor-filled monologues that have you on the edge of your seat. Daniel Craig is more comfortable than ever in his role as Benoit Blanc, in a layered performance that can be subdued in one minute and bombastic in the next. It's no doubt Craig's best performance to date, and it's a role I can't wait to see him grow into more with the next Benoit Blanc mystery.