Shortly after his first tortured transformation of the word murder into something like “moy-duh,” Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) joined the pantheon of fabled fictional fact-finders. He is as methodical as Miss Marple, prideful as Poirot, snide as Sherlock, compassionately clownish as Columbo, and judicious as Jessica Fletcher. He generously cedes the floor to a rotating cast of characters, new for each cinematic installment, until it is time to chew all the scenery, leaving only crumbs for the denouement.
Knives Out was good. Glass Onion was better. And Wake Up Dead Man is the best of all. The cast is crisper, the message is more meaningful, the humor is heightened, and the mystery is more meticulous. Three films in, and writer/director Rian Johnson has found a near-impossibly brisk stride and is jogging backwards, asking audiences to keep up.
This time out, the killing is cloaked in Catholicism. After clocking a fellow priest, Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is all-but-exiled by Bishop Langstrom (Jeffrey Wright) to a small parish run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Wicks is a character who would be just at home in Ari Aster’s Eddington or Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia. He is a physical incarnation of the worst that the modern world has to offer, perverting faith into an aggressive and ugly manipulation of the masses. The masses, it should be noted, are admittedly quite terrible.
Wicks’ flock includes the drunken and divorced Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner); a would-be-politician-turned-MAGA-influencer-wannabe named Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) and the woman who raised him, Vera Draven (Kerry Washington); Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), a washed-up sci-fi writer who sees dollar signs in the MAGA movement; Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), a classical musician who turned to Christianity after nothing else could help heal her chronic pain; Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), the mean-spirited glue that holds the whole church together; and Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), who is smitten with two things: baseball and Martha.
After a closed-room “moy-duh most foul,” Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), calls in Benoit Blanc to help solve the crime. What follows is as much a whydunit, wheredunit, and howdunit as a whodunit. And it’s all set against a lithe and sassy deconstruction of false faith that becomes a celebration of compassion and contrition.
Yes, Knives Out is more fun. Sure, Glass Onion had a more satisfying reveal. But neither had a single scene as sincere as the one between Louise (Bridget Everett), a miniscule character, and Father Jud. Detective movies are notorious for their copious exposition, which this has in Sam Spades. But for this one scene, Johnson shows and doesn’t tell about all the good that religion can be capable of providing. It is a moment that only works as well as it does because O’Connor is so remarkable here. He is wildly endearing and wholly wholesome while still simultaneously and believably sinful and flawed. He is genuinely fantastic in this film in a way that shouldn’t be overlooked just because everyone else (other than the seemingly bored Milla Kunis) is almost as amazing.
Despite its rotund runtime, Wake Up Dead Man plays like a sprint. It breathlessly and relentlessly surges forward with revelation after revelation. It is stunningly shot, frequently outright hilarious, and has more unsubtle-but-sharp social satire than the first two films combined.
At this point, audiences have earned a Benoit-specific mystery next time out. We have spent enough time with the character that a tale told about persons from his past would be deeply satisfying. Here’s hoping that comes our way soon. More importantly, here’s hoping there are still a few dozen solves left in Benoit’s unsensible shoes.
Grade = A
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Victoria Luxford at Clash Magazine says “The religious setting could have opened up a lecture on the evils of the church, but while there are barbs from Blanc’s “proud Heathen”, it’s a fairly even-handed approach to faith that instead explores how institutions can be exploited for personal gain.”
Nathalia Aryani at The MovieMaven says “Exploring myth, miracle and misdeed misdirections, decades-old secrets are unearthed, layers of cover-ups break open, and hidden holy grail and artifices come to light. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is atmospherically engrossing, shrewdly humorous, and inventively clever whodunnit mystery with an entombed closure.”
Manuel São Bento at FandomWire says “The thematic ambition proves to be a great strength in terms of character work, fitting perfectly with the topics of faith, guilt, and forgiveness. Wake Up Dead Man‘s approach to religion is nuanced and deep, avoiding the ease of simple judgment.”