Josh Reviews Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Wake Up Dead Man is the third Benoit Blanc murder mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson.  Knives Out was the first, followed by Glass Onion.  I loved them both, and I’m trilled to report that Wake Up Dead Man is a thoroughly entertaining and completely satisfying new installment in this wonderful series!

This latest film focuses on Father Jud (Josh O’Connor), a young priest with a violent past as a boxer that he’s trying to shed.  But when his temper gets the best of him and he punches a deacon, he is assigned to be the assistant at a remote, rural parish overseen by a fire and brimstone type of preacher, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin).  These two priests are like oil and water, and Father Jud does not have an easy time breaking into the tight circle of congregants who are fiercely loyal to Wicks.  Pretty soon, someone ends up dead, and it looks to all the world that Father Jud did the deed.  Luckily, Benoit Blanc is on the case…

Wake Up Dead Man is a delightful murder mystery.  As always, Mr. Johnson has crafted a tight and taut story that kept me guessing throughout, and left me thoroughly happy when the conclusion arrived and all the pieces fit into place.  It’s a pleasure watching a storyteller as skilled as Rian Johnson unspool his yarn.  Even on a first viewing, I could tell how beautifully well-constructed this film’s story was; I’m sure that on repeat viewings I’ll catch even more hints and clues that I’d missed.

I love that Mr. Johnson has given each Knives Out film its own style and tone.  This is a more serious film than the first two.  It’s not too dour or anything like that, but there are fewer laughs.  I didn’t mind that, because I appreciated the depth to the film’s story, which explored aspects of religion and questions of faith vs skepticism, different viewpoints of God and the role of a religious leader, and the ability or inability of human beings to repent and change their ways, as opposed to being forever damned for our sins.  This is thorny stuff, but Mr. Johnson’s clever script allows these deep questions to be organically woven into this propulsive murder mystery narrative.  The film never stops or gets too dry or dull or sermon-like.  You could enjoy this film at the surface level of being a twisty mystery.  But I delighted in the many ways these complicated questions were incorporated into the story, both as text and subtext.

Probably the biggest surprise to me in the storytelling here was how Benoit Blanc was positioned as a secondary character, with Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud as the main protagonist.  We spend a long time with Father Jud (I think around 40 minutes or so) before Benoit Blanc ever appears in the film, and even once he does, the film keeps Father Jud in the foreground.  I loved that!  Mr. Johnson has created a fascinating character in Jud, a man who is clearly flawed but who seems so endearingly genuine in his desire to be better and to help people.  Josh O’Connor is magnificent in the role, bringing to Father Jud as gentleness and an openness that made me love and root for his character almost immediately.  We’re with Father Jud right from the start, and so as things start to go sour at Monsignor Wicks’ dreary parish, we’re rooting for Jud.  And then when things go really bad and someone gets murdered, and Father Jud blamed, we’re REALLY on his side and rooting for him to find his way out of this mess.  I wasn’t familiar with Mr. O’Connor’s work before this (I’ve never seen The Crown), but I am now a huge fan.  He’s just delightful in the role, playful and heartfelt, carrying the audience from his moving declarations of faith to moments of pure despair.  This is a wonderful, movie-star performance.

Daniel Craig is once again an absolute delight as Benoit Blanc.  At this point, I am fully in love with his bizarre Southern drawl and combination of smooth polish with sometimes awkward blunt honesty.  This is an amazing character that Mr. Johnson & Mr. Craig have created together, and I’d be thrilled to keep watching Benoit Blanc in many, many more adventures!  It’s a clever choice to drop this rationalist thinker into the world of religion and see how he’ll react.  I loved the way the film paired him up with Father Jud, turning into almost a buddy adventure in the second half.  (The only missed opportunity was that I was surprised we didn’t get one scene acknowledging the character’s homosexuality and how that affects his feelings about the Catholic Church.  This was established in Glass Onion, in which we saw that Benoit was in a relationship with Hugh Grant’s character.  I was sorry not to see Mr. Grant back for this film, nor any reference to that relationship.)

Mr. Johnson has assembled a wonderful array of actors to fill out this story, most of whose characters then wind up being suspects for the murder!  Let’s start with Josh Brolin, who is tremendous as the gruff (to put to mildly), tightly-wound Wicks.  Mr. Brolin brings a compelling energy and charisma to the role — we can see why Wicks has amassed his group of acolytes.  Mr,. Brolin plays Wicks like a tightly-coiled spring — we know right away that this man just might be dangerous.  When we see Wicks give a truly vicious, angry sermon, Mr. Brolin brings the house down.  This is a great performance.  Glenn Close plays Martha, the fiercely devout woman who is Wicks’ right-hand woman and who runs everything in the little parish.  Ms. Close is tremendous; she plays Martha as even more tightly-wound than Wicks!  We can immediately see that Martha takes great joy in being the one who knows about every skeleton in every parishioner’s closet.  Ms. Close perfectly plays the way in which Martha’s fanaticism can be comical and also scary.  Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Sherlock) is a pleasure as Lee Ross, a famous author who is now somewhat down on his luck; he’s trying to revive his career but spending most of his time getting angry on the internet.  Mr. Scott tones down his natural charisma just enough to show us the sweaty desperation just under the surface of this otherwise jovial, smooth operator.  Kerry Washington is wonderful as Vera, the well-dressed, buttoned-down lawyer who has been raising her husband’s illegitimate son, her half-brother.  That son/brother is Cy, now grown-up into the worst kind of angry right-wing wannabe politician, using the internet to foment fear and anger as a way of attaining power.  Cy is played by Daryl McCormack, who is wonderfully hatable in the role.  Jeremy Renner plays the small-town’s doctor, now drowning himself in drink and rage after being left by his wife.  It’s a fun change of pace to see Mr. Renner play this type of sad-sack role; he’s great, he gets this character exactly right.  Cailee Spaeny (whose work I’ve really enjoyed in the recent films Civil War and Alien: Romulus) is note-perfect as Simone, a talented cellist forced to abandon her career because of an injury, now desperate for the salvation that Monsignor Wicks offers.

But that’s not all!  This great cast keeps going!  There’s Thomas Hayden Church, who is fantastic as Samson, the sad, lonely groundskeeper who is devoted to Wicks because Wicks helped him kick his addiction to alcohol.  I love the way the film keeps us guessing as to what to make of Samson as the story unfolds.  Mr. Hayden Church plays that ambiguity perfectly.  It’s wonderful to see Mila Kunis as the competent and fair police chief.  It’s nice that the chief is not an antagonist in a story like this.  Ms. Kunis does a nice job playing the audience surrogate for much of the film, reacting as we probably would to all the craziness happening around her.  Jeffrey Wright knocks it out of the park in his small but important role as Langstrom, a friendly bishop who has Father Jud’s back.  Noah Segan, who appears in all of Rian Johnson’s movies, pops up for a small but fun role as a bartender.

Other thoughts:

• I’m still not sure what I think about Daniel Craig’s shaggy haircut in this film!  I like the idea of changing up Benoit’s look between films, though this hairstyle is pretty goofy!
• With a title like Wake Up Dead Man and a story centered around a murder at a church… that’s set around Good Friday… and also the early scene in which we learn that the Wick family crypt was set up with a door that’s only openable from the inside… I was intrigued and curious as to how this film would play with the idea of resurrection after death.  I quite enjoyed how that all went down in the film’s second half.
• I love the way the story plays with the whole idea of a “locked door” mystery.  It’s fun to see some winking acknowledgement of the tropes often found in that sort of story… and then to actually get a terrific corker of a locked door mystery!
• Mr. Johnson and cinematographer Stephen Yedlin have crafted a beautiful-looking film, one that makes the most of the light and shadow in the church at the center of this story.  Pay attention to the way the light and darkness shifts during several key scenes in the church.  This is masterful work!
• Very minor SPOILERS in this bullet point, so beware.  This whole story fits perfectly together for me except for one tiny but nagging detail, which is how that one character seemed to be stuck in a certain secret spot (I’m trying not to spoil things!) for three days.  That doesn’t make sense to me — how was that possible?  What did he eat?  Did he go to the bathroom?  I feel like we were missing one short scene or beat to better explain that.

I had a fantastic time watching Wake Up Dead Man.  I can’t wait to watch it again.  This is a terrific film and a thoroughly satisfying new installment in what has become one of my favorite film series!  I hope we get many more!!

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