As a therapist to “ultra high net worth individuals”, for me the new Netflix sensation, Glass Onion, A Knives Out Mystery, hits a little too close to home. While the average person naturally finds it hard to muster any sympathy for billionaires, the sequel to the 2019 murder mystery film Knives Out perfectly illustrates why I would never choose to enter the complicated world of my clients. Trust me when I say you’ll never see me buying a lottery ticket.
Director Rian Johnson sets his sequel on a lavish private Greek island owned by billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). Miles’ closest friends gather to play a murder mystery game over the course of a glamorous weekend – along with the world’s greatest detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). While this might seem like a far-fetched storyline, it is not entirely unusual.
One of the problems I hear when listening to the super-rich is an increasing need to go bigger and more elaborate with social events. Why have a normal birthday party when you can hire the Rolling Stones to give a concert for your friends? Why throw a small Christmas gathering with your family when you can get Michael Bublé to sit at the piano and sing his holiday hits during cocktail hour? After a while, it’s just never enough. The bigger they go, the less satisfied they become. Imagine having everything, and not being able to enjoy it.
The film also skilfully explores the greatest heartbreak that comes with wealth: rich people can’t trust anyone. Ever. And each time they try – and believe me, they do try – it will often burn them. All of their relationships are tainted by the power dynamic brought about by their wealth. In Glass Onion, while Miles presents with confidence and swagger, he knows that his weekend guests, his oldest and dearest friends from his pre-wealth days, are only there because of the power he has over them. He invests in their ventures, pulls them out of scrapes, holds their debts – each one has a tie that binds. These relationships are not based on authentic love or open honesty, but a toxic dynamic that festers into paranoia.
I’ve seen some of my wealthy clients innocently and generously help out an old high school friend going through financial troubles, or perhaps offer to send their kids to college, to suddenly realise that the relationship has a whiff of business about it. They begin to notice that their old friend seems hesitant around them, and perhaps too eager to please. The power dynamic has changed, and now there is a sense of obligation and debt.
This has happened even within families. One of my famous clients was invited to dinner by her sister, only to arrive and realise it was actually a planned evening with some producers who wanted to pitch a TV deal and product endorsements. It seems that every interaction comes with an ask.
If this is what the very wealthy experience from their friends and family members, can you imagine what it’s like when new people come into their lives? With every new friend comes a host of doubts. What do they want? Are they interested in me, or my money and/or fame? It’s a fine line between paranoia and educated suspicion.
Cautious of new friends and burned by their old friends, many of my clients become very isolated, or only socialise in a bubble of other billionaires. While most of us do not feel sorry for the very wealthy, in reality, it’s not all helicopters, yachts and private islands. It’s a complicated world with its own rules and pitfalls, and many people do not survive it.
Throughout Glass Onion, it becomes increasingly clear that the rich often do get burned, and that wealth corrupts people because it robs us of life’s true treasure: friendship. After the credits roll, maybe you’ll be left not wanting to buy a lottery ticket either; and instead, wanting to hold your own friends a little closer.
Clay Cockrell is a psychotherapist and the founder of Walk and Talk Therapy
