The third film in the critically acclaimed Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, released to select theaters this November, and later released to streaming on Netflix. Directed by Rian Johnson, the films star Daniel Craig as the highly skilled detective Benoit Blanc, along with a unique, complex protagonist and an eclectic ensemble.
In Wake Up Dead Man, Blanc works with boxer turned Priest Jud Duplenticy, played by Josh O’Connor as they try to solve the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the controversial, wild, and charismatic pastor of the church “Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude” who is revealed throughout the movie to have a cult-like following. His following is made up of members of his “flock”. Some of these characters include Martha, Wicks’s right hand woman, Nat Sharp, a doctor struggling with alcoholism, and Vera Draven, a lawyer and adoptive mother.
Set in a small parish in Upstate New York, Wake Up Dead Man is often dark, with tense moments and twists and turns that make you question what you thought you knew about the murder. Compared to its predecessors in the series, the film had big shoes to fill. The first Knives Out is a largely beloved film that excels in its plot, acting, characters and overall quality. Admittedly, while the second film Glass Onion may have had a more critical reception, it was a solid film nonetheless.
A unique feature of this film series is how it handles sequels. Unlike typical series, new Knives Out films don’t directly continue the plot of their predecessors, but instead only transfer the themes, a select few references, and the character of Benoit Blanc. This somewhat mirrors Agatha Christie’s Poirot book series, often considered the most iconic mystery series of all time.
One of the best aspects of Wake Up Dead Man is how it dealt with its central theme of Christianity and religion in general. Knives Out movies use the murder mystery plot to explore and examine real world, nuanced ideas, breaking from the cliche of murder mysteries being a typically goofy and trivial genre. In Wake Up Dead Man, religion and faith are incredibly important to the overall message it tries to convey, and while the viewer still gets an interesting murder mystery, they are also left with a thought-provoking evaluation of something often profound.
As the plot develops and the mystery unfolds, Wake Up Dead Man dives into the many nuanced ideas surrounding faith. An obvious example of this is the contrast between Jud and Monsignor Wicks. Both are deeply entwined with the church, but use their faith in different ways. Wicks is shown to be intimidating and manipulative before his murder, using Christianity to excuse his actions and control others. Jud on the other hand, while having a dark past, lets faith fuel him to be a genuinely good person. He’s not perfect, but he is filled with the intent to be, put simply, a good person. This juxtaposition can be interpreted many ways, but many took away the message that faith does not make a person good or bad, but rather how that person embodies that faith sets the trajectory for their actions.
Along with that, another high point were the performances of the lead actors. In particular, Josh O’Connors portrayal of Jud is fantastic. O’Connors line deliveries, body language, and interactions with the other characters are strikingly strong. He delivered several monologues in such a way that held a significant amount of emotional weight, creating a strong impact on the viewer. This added to the film’s elevated presence as more than just a murder mystery movie.
However, somewhat of a low point in the movie were the surrounding characters, specifically Wick’s flock. This is not to say that they weren’t wholly interesting, but compared to the previous films they didn’t stick out. Understandably, they are side characters, so they aren’t supposed to be a main focus, but there seemed to be missed potential for being more comedic or complex, which is the role they played and excelled at previously. It’s not as if there isn’t space for comedy in the story, there is, but those moments don’t shine as much because of the flatness of the ensemble.
Another noticeable flaw was actress Mila Kunis, and her portrayal of police chief Geraldine Scott. While not a huge part of the plot, her performance was the only one that stuck out as noticeably not great. In general, Kunis’s casting seemed strange, and the way she played her character didn’t fit in with the atmosphere and tone of the film in a way that is almost hard to describe.
Finally, the central mystery simply wasn’t as strong as the first was. It wasn’t bad by any means, but the original Knives Out mystery excels. This is for a variety of small factors, one being that it was fairly convoluted. The suspect was clearly telegraphed, but the means in which the murder happened is certainly impossible to figure out until the very end. The mysteries in these movies didn’t have to be completely solvable, but part of the appeal of the first’s mystery is that there were clues the viewer could put together to get at least a reasonable idea of what happened. This is not the case in Wake Up Dead Man, but nonetheless being taken on the journey of what exactly transpired was interesting.