By George & Josh Bate
After establishing Benoit Blanc as one of cinema’s great sleuths over the course of two films, Rian Johnson’s wave of tantalizing and timely whodunnits continues with Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, a more heartfelt and subtly satirical, yet similarly winding and ingeniously plotted murder mystery.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery once again follows the suave and well-spoken Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he tries to solve a perplexing murder. The case this time around involves a mysterious death that occurs in the orbit of a charismatic priest (Josh Brolin) and that brings him into close contact with a young priest (Josh O’Connor) and a tight-knit group of parishioners simmering with secrets.
With seven films under his belt, Rian Johnson has established a reputation for subversive storytelling. Look no further than his entry in the Star Wars universe, the brilliant and unexpected The Last Jedi that still generates debate to this day. His work on the Knives Out movies has similarly toyed with the conventions of a well-established fixture of pop culture, in this case murder mysteries, to tremendous effect. If there was any fault to be lodged at Knives Out and Glass Onion, however, it was that Johnson may have been a tad too clever or grandiose at times with his twists, turns, and non-linear narrative. In Wake Up Dead Man, Johnson exercises restraint in this regard to craft a more traditional whodunnit that nonetheless retains his penchant for ingenious and unpredictable plotting.
Unlike the first Benoit Blanc mystery, which kicked off with the murder of focus, Wake Up Dead Man takes calculated time establishing suspects and fleshing out characters before the big death occurs. In less capable hands, this extensive build-up to the murder could have been protracted and even boring, but Johnson ensures this is never the case. While it takes some time for the murder occur, the film doesn’t waste a second before kicking the story off, introducing audiences to a likable and compelling lead. While Knives Out and Glass Onion had Ana de Armas and Janelle Monáe as pseudo-leads alongside Craig’s Benoit Blanc, Wake Up Dead Man firmly positions Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud as the lead and greatly delays Blanc’s entry into the story. This decision mirrors various Agatha Christie mysteries that similarly did not introduce detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple until around or even beyond the halfway point and affords the opportunity to grow close to and genuinely care for a character. In doing so, Johnson intelligently lays the foundation for what eventually becomes the most heartfelt entry in the Knives Out franchise.
This foundation also places all kinds of interesting puzzle pieces on the board that tee-up the most unpredictable and exciting Knives Out mystery yet. Everything you’d want and expect from these movies is there: quirky and interesting suspects, red herrings, a lead detective that exudes cool, timely satire, and a mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end. Wake Up Dead Man’s mystery excels where its predecessors didn’t, however, in letting audiences solve the mystery side-by-side with Blanc. Some whodunnits, including Knives Out and Glass Onion to a degree, create a distance between the viewer and the all-intelligent detective, always two steps ahead of the audience. But the new film opts against this approach, instead retaining Blanc’s extraordinary intellect while letting the audience work through the mystery with him, rather than watch him work through the mystery himself. It’s a subtle, yet supremely successful shift that fosters a more immersive and engaging whodunnit.
The aforementioned array of quirky suspects may not come close to the fascinating idiosyncrasies of the suspects in the previous two films, although they compel and are brought to life by a variety of strong performances nonetheless. Early on, Josh O’Connor’s narration firmly establishes the suspects for the murder we’ve yet to see. There’s an alcoholic town doctor (Jeremy Renner), a bygone sci-fi author (Andrew Scott), a former concert cellist now bound to a wheelchair (Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring GOP politician (Daryl McCormack), the lead priest’s right-hand woman (Glenn Close), a tightly-wound lawyer (Kerry Washington), and the church’s laid back groundskeeper (Thomas Haden Church). Each of them serve as humorous personifications of various types of people in modern society and represent Johnson’s willingness to poke fun at and commentate on all kinds of people. No one suspect is given that much dramatic material to chew on, but they all play their roles well and have memorable sequences or lines of dialogue that hold a mirror up to our society.
Johnson’s desire to comment on today’s world doesn’t stop with these various characters and caricatures. As was the case with Knives Out and Glass Onion, Wake Up Dead Man features cutting-edge, satirical commentary on the landscape of world politics and significant figures. Marking a departure from his previous efforts, however, is the poignancy of the new film’s commentary. Knives Out investigated class warfare and Glass Onion ridiculed omnipresent, self-proclaimed faux geniuses like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, but Wake Up Dead Man takes the commentary a step further, while remarkably playing it more subtly. The messaging will hit close to home for anyone even moderately aware of modern politics and works exceptionally well.
Encompassing this commentary is a well-intentioned exploration of faith that is never taken to its fullest extent. The entire film takes place in and around a small church and Josh O’Connor’s lead character is a priest, meaning Wake Up Dead Man does not shy away from conversations about faith (or lack thereof). Through these conversations involving O’Connor’s character, the film taps into a level of emotion the previous films did not meet. A scene in the middle of the film in particular involving O’Connor answering a woman’s prayers over the phone stands out as easily the most heartfelt scene of this trilogy. Ultimately, however, despite the strong emotions provoked along the way, the resolution of this exploration of faith lands in a murky spot and leaves a bit to be desired.
Much of the film’s best laughs come from Johnson’s approach to faith. Jeffrey Wright in a small role delivers the greatest laughs in moments where his candid and crude language juxtaposes his status as a bishop. The other, most effective jokes work similarly as Wright’s in having a priest or devout character say or do something that seems decidedly counter to their faith. Despite the prevalence of these kinds of jokes, broadly speaking, Johnson tones down the humor in Wake Up Dead Man, in keeping with his subtler approach to social commentary.
Wright’s humorously scene-stealing turn aside, Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor stand out among an impressive ensemble. Craig can probably play Benoit Blanc in his sleep at this point, such is the effortless cool he brings to the role. He gives Blanc a different flavor of suave than the suave he brought to his portrayal at James Bond, while still managing to craft a distinct and extremely likable character. The meatiest material, however, is given to O’Connor, who follows his extraordinary turns in Challengers and The History of Sound with another performance that justifies his rapid rise to stardom. O’Connor steps up to the challenge posed by Johnson and brilliantly plays the variety of dimensions of his lead character. He’s gentle, vulnerable, regretful, kind, and so much more – a genuinely fleshed out lead, seldom seen in even the greatest of whodunnits.
Speaking of great whodunnits, Johnson seeps every scene in his reverence for the classic detective works of Agatha Christie, Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Dickinson Carr. This time around, the filmmaker goes even more overt with the references, namely to Carr and his seminal locked room mystery The Hollow Man. Anyone who enjoys these movies because of their adoration for Christie, Carr, and company will love how Johnson interweaves tenets of their iconic works into his story more overtly.
VERDICT: 8.5/10
Rian Johnson caps off his trilogy of whodunnits with a more heartfelt and subtly satirical, yet similarly winding and ingeniously plotted murder mystery. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery sees Johnson retain his trademark subversiveness, while simultaneously exercising restraint to avoid getting too clever with too many twists, turns, and non-linearity. Marking an intelligent shift from the previous films, the audience is given the chance to solve the mystery alongside Benoit Blanc this time around, rather than having Daniel Craig’s suave detective always be multiple steps ahead. The array of suspects may not live up to the heights of Knives Out and Glass Onion’s suspects, but they each work as interesting and humorous personifications of various roles and issues in modern society, making the film yet another timely story. The timeliness becomes even more apparent through the more poignant and subtle social commentary of this third film, which will resonate with anyone even moderately aware of the current political landscape. While the film’s examination of faith doesn’t quite go as far as it could, multiple discussions of faith (or lack thereof) give Wake Up Dead Man its heart, in particular a scene with Josh O’Connor that is easily the series’ most moving. O’Connor shines above and beyond this scene, crafting a gentle, vulnerable, kind, and extremely likable lead, while Craig exudes suave in a role he could probably play in his sleep at this point. An unbelievable and more overt reverence for the detective works of Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, and others seeps through every scene of Wake Up Dead Man and will satisfy die hard whodunnit lovers like ourselves. With three Knives Out films under his belt, Rian Johnson has created an enthralling, subversive trilogy that breathed much-needed new life into the cinematic whodunnit. Hopefully this is far from the last mystery we see Benoit Blanc unravel.