It happened around 7 one evening during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when all three of our kids were out of school and my wife and I were on vacation from our jobs. The kids were in the living room watching the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender — something they’ve done before, so we knew they’d be entertained for hours. Mel and I looked at each other with sly smiles and realized this was our opportunity to sneak into our front room and watch a movie together on our projector, something that doesn’t happen nearly as often as we’d like. 

There’s something about raising kids, being in the weeds with trying to maximize your time as a family, that makes every movie night a family movie night. And don’t get me wrong, I love watching movies with my kids. That’s what this whole Screen Time column is about. But at the same time, there’s something truly magical about sitting with my wife and watching a movie that we both eagerly want to see — one that doesn’t include a talking animal as the protagonist, or a tween struggling to find friendship in junior high. Basically, what I’m saying is, when you have kids, finding time to sit down as a couple and watch a movie where adults are the intended audience is much easier said than done. And when you do manage to make it happen, there’s an incredible amount of pressure to make sure the movie is something good. 

We aren’t always the best at picking a movie we can both enjoy. Usually there’s a negotiation, some back and forth, her wanting a romantic comedy while I want something with more action, the whole conversation being a little cliché, and eventually we come to an agreement. But when we turned on Netflix to pick something and saw Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in the Top 10, there really was no argument. There was no playful banter or need for compromise. 

Every once in a while, we find a movie we not only agree on from the beginning but also end up enjoying equally. It happened with Knives Out, and it happened again with Glass Onion. We immediately knew we wanted to go on another adventure with Daniel Craig’s master detective, Benoit Blanc.

Mel and I pressed play and tried to guess who would be the guilty party when all was revealed. At first, my money was on Duke (Dave Bautista), but Mel disagreed: “It’s Claire [played by Kathryn Hahn]. It’s got to be Claire. She has the true motive.” As the movie went on, we turned our focus to other would-be criminals, discussing tech billionaire Miles (Edward Norton) and his motives, along with model-turned-designer Birdie (Kate Hudson) and her long-suffering assistant, Peg (Jessica Henwick). While debating our suspicions, we discussed the cast and where we’d seen the actors — I knew Edward Norton from Fight Club while Mel knew him best from The Italian Job. And we both met Kathryn Hahn on Parks and Recreation. We compared the movie to everything from the 1985 movie Clue to the first Knives Out film and every Agatha Christie novel we’d ever read.

Near the end, when we were just about to find out who was behind it all, our youngest came in to ask for some of our popcorn. What she found was a couple in their 40s snuggling on the sofa, my arm around Mel as she munched on some popcorn, both of us enjoying our time together. And as crazy as it sounds, Aspen looked at us and smiled, almost like she felt peace in knowing that her parents were enjoying themselves. Not that any of those peaceful feelings prevented her from asking, once again, for more popcorn. So we dumped some in a bowl and handed it over so we could finish our movie and finally learn if our suspicions were accurate. 

I won’t spoil the big reveal, but after all those Glass Onion layers were peeled away, it turned out my wife was right. She’d called it correctly, and I’d doubted her — something you’d think I’d stop doing after 18 years together. But that wasn’t the highlight of the evening. What made this memorable was that we were able to enjoy a movie, just the two of us.

Once the credits rolled and we went back to the living room to check on our kids, our teenage daughter asked why we were smiling. “Oh,” I said, “we just watched an awesome movie together.” And she didn’t need to be a detective to deduce that her parents are still very much in love. 

Daniel Craig & Rian Johnson Discuss Glass Onion's Benoit BlancThere's no one better to explain than these two.