‘WAKE UP DEAD MAN’ is A Holy Mystery a Few Beads Short of a Full Rosary

Detective Benoit Blanc is back for the third edition of Rian Johnson’s irreverently charming neo-noir Netflix mystery series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. This time knives (and, of course, a murder most foul) are indeed involved, but so is an unholy whodunnit that defies the logic of the material world: a locked-closet killing and an apparent resurrection used as profane misdirection when a slaying at an isolated church leaves everyone scratching their heads and praying to god for answers. The effect is another breezy, well–laid-out puzzle box from Johnson that spins its duplicitous webs, though it falls short of greatness due to an over-reliance on confessional exposition and an underdeveloped ensemble cast.

That latter shortcoming is somewhat excusable because from the jump Wake Up Dead Man is unabashedly the Josh O’Connor show. The rising star plays Father Jud Duplenticy, a devout Catholic priest with a checkered past. After an altercation with a fellow clergyman, Father Jud is relocated to an isolated but beautifully gothic upstate parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. There, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) leads his flock with all the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament channeled through a Fox News bent. Where Monsignor Wicks sees his version of Christianity locked in a holy war with modernity, Father Jud sees opportunity for bringing in lost souls like his previous self. One is their deity’s loving carrot, the other his fiery stick. Charged with expanding the base of support beyond the few sycophantic worshipers under the Monsignor’s doom-and-gloom spell, Father Jud finds himself in an ideological and existential battle over the meaning of Jesus’s word in the 21st century. And then someone dies.

Like the other films in the Knives Out franchise, Wake Up Dead Man checks all the boxes for a satisfying mystery, littering the margins with red herrings and just enough dangling threads to tug at so the audience can play along at unwinding the myserties for themselves. But the genre’s reliance on drawn-out explanations can be a double-edged sword, and Johnson leans heavily on long-winded, Scooby-Doo-style unmasking monologues that deflate some of the film’s momentum. The mechanics remain clever — they always are in this series — but the spell breaks when every turn has to be narrated to within an inch of its life.

With three under his belt now, it’s safe to say that Johnson’s Knives Out movies are fun and harmless — pretty ideal four-quadrant holiday releases — and I appreciate that. But I also find them rather forgettable. Thinking back on the first two (which, to their credit, I’ve only seen once apiece), I struggled to recall a single plot detail outside the A-list ensembles. I suspect the same will be true here. That said, Wake Up Dead Man does try to strike at deeper themes of faith and forgiveness — how forgiveness is earned and must come from the self — as well as the corrupting power of money and material comforts. That material seems to be where Johnson’s real interest lies here. He pours so much detail into this battle of faith that the murder mystery feels almost secondary to that thematic core. The entire introduction and setup of Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud runs close to forty minutes and essentially is the whole first act.

The performances are solid across the board. Josh Brolin is spellbinding as an Old Testament Catholic leader whose sermonizing borders on megalomania. Daniel Craig remains an undeniable blast of charisma and craft as Blanc; that syrupy Southern drawl paired with his comedic timing is a reminder of just how wide the former 007 actor’s range really is. He’s good in all of these movies, but particularly so here. Glenn Close is another standout, playing a hyper-religious fanatic with lifelong ties to the church. But it’s Josh O’Connor who truly steals the show. He channels a mix of sensitivity and empathy with a preternatural pull toward the more human — a tug towards violence, and cussing — impulses shaped by his upbringing on the streets. He’s the beating heart of the film as well as its cloying conscience, and his work at its center speaks to the film’s strongest thematic delivery.

On a more disappointing note, you’ve got Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Mila Kunis, and Thomas Haden Church, and none of them really have much to do. I understand the impulse to cram as much A-list talent into the cast as possible — that’s become a hallmark of this ensemble-driven series — but it undercuts the whodunnit when the side characters don’t get enough time to register as actual people, let alone plausible suspects. Further, when taken under a microscope, a lot of the motivations of these side characters don’t hold up to much scrutiny but I won’t go into great detail to avoid anything resembling a spoiler.

By the time the mystery wraps, audiences won’t feel particularly heaven-sent, nor will they damn their time with Wake Up Dead Man to hell. It’s a thoroughly satisfying crowd-pleaser that plays comfortably within the established rules of this universe. It’s also one of the more thematically ambitious entries in the series, treating questions of faith with surprising dignity and grace. But it’s further proof that these movies come with a high floor and a somewhat low ceiling. They’re reliably entertaining and immaculately constructed, yet rarely linger. Wake Up Dead Man is clever, funny, thematically rich, and anchored by a genuinely affecting performance from Josh O’Connor. It’s also a little long, a little too in love with its own mechanics, and ultimately more impressed with its puzzle than its people. The result is a very good film, just not a great one: rather enjoyable, occasionally moving, but still hemmed in by the franchise’s signature (and ultimately forgettable) indulgences.

CONCLUSION: The winning combo of Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor threatens to send ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ to the heavens, but the third ‘Knives Out’ entry — though the most thematically ambitious of the bunch — is held back by some material flaws, chief among them an over-reliance on over-explanation.