Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 2 hours 24 minutes
Stars: Daniel Craig, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Josh O’Connor
Writer/Director: Rian Johnson
In theaters and streaming on Netflix
Reviewed at the Toronto International Film Festival
The most satisfying entry yet in the top-shelf Knives Out mystery series finds master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) not only probing the secrets of a locked-room murder, but also the even more profound questions of life, faith, and immortality.
In a franchise that was already the smartest kid on the block, it’s a remarkably ambitious effort from writer/director Rian Johnson.
In the grand tradition of Lieutenant Columbo, Blanc doesn’t turn up in the film until a third of the way through, summoned by flummoxed police to solve the apparent murder of fire-and-brimstone Catholic Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (a bellowing Josh Brolin). The guy was found stabbed in the back during a Good Friday service, moments after having ducked into a small stone alcove, just off the main altar, in full view of the congregation.
The period before the flamboyant Blanc’s grand cinematic entrance is spent setting up the crime and providing us with likely suspects: the seemingly adoring church lady (Glenn Close), the wheelchair bound cellist (Mila Kunis), the failed far-right politician (Daryl McCormack), the once-popular novelist (Andrew Scott), the hard-driving lawyer (Kerry Washington), and the town doctor (Jeremy Renner), who can’t get over having been dumped by his wife.
The thing is, all those possible killers all belonged to a sort-of cult that lived in thrall of the victim, who preached a hybrid end times-us-against-them gospel that, for varying reasons, fed them the exact spiritual elixir they thirsted for. That leaves as the only other possible suspect young Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a recently arrived assistant and former boxer who, unfortunately, has in the past displayed a short and somewhat violent temper.
There is, of course, a singular problem when it comes to pinning Wicks’s murder on any of these folks: They were all either sitting in their pews or standing in the pulpit when they heard Wicks fall to the stone floor of the alcove.
That’s where Detective Blanc comes in. He discerns how the killing was pulled off with surprising speed, but identifying the killer proves to be trickier — especially when, to everyone’s considerable surprise, there appears to be evidence that Monsignor Wicks may have somehow pulled off a Third Day Resurrection.
One thing Blanc’s sure of: Despite the police chief’s strong hunch, the young priest didn’t do it. So, Blanc and Father Jud team up to clear Jud’s name, questioning parishioners, following up forensic leads, and engaging in lengthy debates regarding the faith in which Father Jud finds solace, Blanc finds doubt, and too many of these characters find ways to wield power over each other.
It’s those latter passages in which Wake Up Dead Man finds its most intriguing moments. After all, we know darn well Blanc is going to ultimately solve the murder. But as Blanc and Jud push and prod at each other’s attitudes toward faith — each man fully committed to his position and the direction of his life primarily directed by that stance — writer/director Johnson gives his film remarkable room to breathe outside the schematic plot we came here expecting. The two spar until the very end, even as the audience recognizes their shared values of respect and mercy, even under trying circumstances.
As usual, Johnson elicits terrific performances from his stars, each of whom creates an indelible character. Close brings wild-eyed intensity to the wonderfully named Martha Delacroix; even when she manages a forced smile, there’s something positively terrifying about her. Brolin’s monsignor is at once repulsive and compelling. As the young, deer-in-the-headlights priest, O’Connor provides a welcome, gangly sense of innocence.
After three films, Craig may have run out of new facets of his drawling detective to reveal, but he sees to it that Benoit Blanc remains both agreeable company and a commanding ring master to the mystery genre’s inevitable circus of suspects.
Johnson has said that Wake Up Dead Man is an exploration of his two minds regarding matters of the spirit: Raised in the church, he has morphed into a respectful skeptic. That’s reflected in the moment when Blanc and Father Jud part ways: one convinced every puzzle can be solved; the other more certain than ever that life’s most comforting answers can comfortably reside within unresolved mysteries.
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