Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

by Mike McGranaghan

Wake Up, Dead Man is one of the most sincerely religious movies I’ve ever seen. So-called “faith-based” films, even the good ones, tend to offer up homogenized messages about miracles or the ability to turn your life around. They’re nice, yet wholly predictable. Rian Johnson’s latest entry in the Knives Out franchise delves into the messier aspects, recognizing that faith is a complex journey that grows through persistence, occasional failure, and a willingness to reconcile who you strive to be with the imperfect person you actually are. It’s a first-rate murder mystery, too.

Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is a young priest assigned to help at a small New York church run by the egomaniacal Msgr. Wicks (Josh Brolin). Although he delights in intimidating certain parishioners, Wicks has a group of people who are doggedly loyal to his inflammatory sermons. There’s Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), the town doctor who was abandoned by his wife; attorney Vera Draven (Kerry Washington); her relative, aspiring firebrand politician Sy (Daryl McCormack); disabled cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny); washed-up sci-fi writer Lee Ross (Andrew Scott); and Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), the church secretary who knows where all the bodies are buried.

Speaking of bodies, master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is brought in when Wicks is murdered in the middle of conducting mass. His death occurs while he’s inside a small closet, so the question isn’t just who did it but also how they did it.

Like Knives Out and Glass Onion, Wake Up Dead Man is populated with colorful characters and shocking plot developments. Murder mysteries are notoriously difficult to pull off. Johnson knows how to craft a whodunit where it isn’t easy to guess the culprit and where the eventual explanation adheres to logic. For all the twists Blanc’s case takes, it makes total sense in the end. And because the suspects are fully formed, we can believe that any of them might be the murderer. No cheap red herrings here. The film additionally contains the bits of quirky humor that constitute a significant part of the franchise.

When I think back on the first two installments, I find that I remember pieces of them – certain locations, specific characters, funny gags, etc. This one is different. Johnson has crafted the whole mystery to revolve around the theme of faith. Father Jud believes in spreading Christ’s message of love. Wicks, by contrast, actively attempts to instill fear in other people. He uses religion as a means of gaining power. To crack the case, Blanc needs Jud to bring his benevolent faith into a situation where Christianity has been distorted into something toxic. In the same vein, the revelation of the killer’s identity isn’t a mere giveaway; it’s an exploration of the role of absolution in faith. For these reasons, I know I’m going to remember this movie most out of the three.

The entire cast – which also includes Mila Kunis as a town cop and Thomas Haden Church as the groundskeeper – is strong. O’Connor is particularly outstanding, though. Helping Blanc solve the case puts Jud’s own faith to the test – not his faith in God, which is unshakable, but his faith in humanity. He’s forced to confront the fact that even the most religious individuals are capable of appalling, un-Christlike behavior. The actor is front and center, taking us on that journey right alongside Jud. Between this, The Mastermind, Rebuilding, and The History of Sound, O’Connor is having an extraordinary year.

If I’ve made Wake Up Dead Man sound heavy, rest assured it is a great deal of fun, too. Johnson nicely mixes the thoughtful, introspective moments with others that advance a captivating plot guaranteed to keep you on your toes. For my money, the Knives Out series is one of the most consistently entertaining properties we have going right now, and this installment proves it’s just getting better.

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