Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
In Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc says “I’m incapable of not solving a crime. That moment of checkmate, when I unravel my opponent’s web - it’s fun.” By now, three movies into the Knives Out series, I’ve given up on trying to figure out who the killer is before we find out. It’s really more about the “how” and “why” than “who” by this point. We know we’re going to get to the “who,” so in the meantime, enjoy the journey.
2019’s Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion had a palpable “eat the rich” social commentary. That’s been done several times, and is dated now. It was cool when we were in that phase, but movies have moved on from that. Wake Up Dead Man’s focus is more about old-timey church politics, power struggles, and the emotionally/religiously charged stuff that can happen behind the scenes there. Writer/director Rian Johnson makes optimal use of the looming arched ceilings, and the sunlight bleeding through the all-familiar stained glass windows.
Josh O’Connor plays the wonderfully named Father Jud Duplenticy, a Catholic priest in upstate New York. He used to be a boxer, and though he retired the gloves, he never lost the temper. After an altercation with a deacon, he is reassigned as assistant pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a remote parish with a small but devoted congregation of regulars. It’s led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). He’s the one who dies, in the middle of a Good Friday service. While doing his post-sermon swig from a flask in a secluded storage closet near the pulpit, he’s stabbed in the back.
After taking a half hour and change to introduce us to the stacked cast that Johnson is known for assembling (it includes Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Wright, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, and Mila Kunis), Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc shows up to take on the case. He has longer hair this time around, but otherwise, it’s the same characterization we’ve come to know and love. If you’re a Brolin fan, don’t worry. Even after his fate, you still see plenty of him, via flashbacks. It’s a similar treatment to Christopher Plummer in 2019’s Knives Out.
The first film was lightning in a bottle. The murder mystery was great, but secondary to the atmosphere and the character dynamic that was created. With that one, I didn’t need a score card, nor did I need to make notes. I knew these people, and it was a pleasure to get to know them. I wonder if at the time, nobody knew it would be so successful that the studio would want it to continue, like a series. They thought it would be a standalone movie, so they did everything to knock it out of the park, on what they thought was their one shot. The second and third installments are very slightly diminishing returns, but are still very fun.
Everything has been building up to Blanc’s “checkmate” moment - the epic, now iconic monologue where he thoroughly lays out whodunit and whydunit and howdunit. It’s not all contained in one scene. It’s in two parts, and doesn’t just involve Craig. He has the usual passion and fire in his belly, then the actor who plays the killer finishes it off with an equally powerful confession scene. I was happy that the most likable character turned out to have not done anything wrong here, despite the film sometimes making it look like they might have. Outside of that person, I didn’t much care who the culprit was. I hope they make many more of these Knives Out mysteries - but if somehow, they knew in advance that the last one was going to be the last one, how cool would it be to have Detective Blanc as the final killer?