Forgive me Father for I have assembled a devilisly good cast…
We are used to seeing murder mysteries set at large estates or in handsome manors–the kinds with fireplaces that illuminate dastardly confessions and quietly violent misdeeds. Sometimes Agatha Christie’s stories would even take us to exotic, romantic locales like Venice or Egypt. With Knives Out, director Rian Johnson has a clear respect and affinity for “the setting” and how it is key to welcoming its characters and understanding motivations. The first film echoed that classic, privileged atmosphere with the murder of crime novelist Jacob Thrombey before flipping the script in Glass Onion. That house was huge but modern, bright, and unexpected. In the third entry of the Benoit Blanc saga, we step into a house of worship. Unlike a mansion filled with unknown personas, one might already have an opinion about religion or faith as they step into a church. I know I would. Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man is a fiendishly good third act. It explores faith, vengeance, and forgiveness while never sacrificing its darkly humorous spirit. I must confess that you will have a hell of a good time.
“I just want to be a good priest,” says Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud Duplenticy, a former boxer who punched another priest in the face hard enough to get him transferred to another parish as punishment. Jud joins the tutelage of Josh Brolin’s Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a fiery leader of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, who doesn’t want to be responsible for another man of the cloth. Wicks’ flock is diminishing as new congregants will feel so uncomfortable during his sermons that they will leave before the final prayer. The only people left in the pews are a small collection of devoted followers who eventually become suspects when Wicks is found dead in a small locked room at the head of the church as service comes to an end.
Every time a new batch of casting begins for the latest Johnson/Blanc mystery, social media is tittering about, and this collection of suspects is introduced relatively early in the story to allow the story to settle in and play.
Kerry Washington’s Vera Draven is not only one of the coolest named characters in any film of the last five years, but she is headstrong attorney whose aspirations took a left turn when she answers a request from her father. Daryl McCormack’s Cy Draven shares the level of aspirations as Vera, but he wants to position himself as a new conservative golden boy. Lee Ross, played with an upturned eye by Andrew Scott, is a science fiction novelist (the kind with the small, animated covers) who is looking for new inspiration fort a story. Cailee Spaeny plays Simon Vivane, a top-tier cellist whose chronic pain derailed her career, and she looks to Wicks for spiritual guidance as much as he looks to her pocketbook. Jeremy Renner’s Doctor Nat Sharp is a physician in the throes of a marital crisis while Thomas Haden Church’s groundskeeper, Samson Holt, keeps a watchful eye. And then there’s Glenn Close. Her Martha Delacroix is as dependable as the church itself. She does everything from bookkeeping to fundraising to cleaning. You want to talk about devout? No one is more devout than Martha.
It doesn’t take long for Jud to become a prime suspect in Blanc’s case. They butt heads from the beginning, but they do not preach in the same way. When Jud tries to hold his own Bible studies in his home to get to know the small parish better, they march out in fear of what Wicks will do when he finds out. In a lot of ways, Johnson’s third Knives Out film is about anger as much (maybe more?) as it is about faith. How does the light of worship snuff out hatred and darkness? Can one truly atone for the sins they have committed in their past, or are we doomed to regret and repent for the rest of our lives?
Wake Up Dead Man is darker territory for Johnson, as the mystery swirls into the motivations of the members of the church. Its gothic tone is such a departure from Glass Onion‘s sunsoaked, murderous getaway, but it never sacrifices the humor as this unlikely collection of personalities become warier of one another. Blanc begins to think that Wicks’ murder is unsolvable, because he dropped dead in a windowless room. The mystery challenges Blanc to blow the puzzlebox apart, but taking Jud along with him, almost like a young ward, adds to the fun. Blanc is up front about his lack of faith, and that conflict of the heart and the mind is present for the entire case.
Josh O’Connor is having one banner year, and he is the beating heart inside this mystery. It’s almost as if he’s not just trying to clear his name or conscious but also declare himself worthy of his own faith. This isn’t about reputation, it’s about duty to God. There is one moment where he stops flittering about with Blanc to take a phone call from someone in crisis, and it slows the film down in the most genuine way. Daniel Craig may have played James Bond for fifteen years, but his Benoit Blanc will define his career. Audiences have been saying that since the first film, but with each gift of a screenplay, I fall deeper and deeper in love with his tenacity. Glenn Close delivers an operatic, delicious turn.
Wake Up Dead Man, to put it quitely plainly, is sinfully good. It reveals how power can be accelerated by the halls of belief and our deepest, deepest confidences. I will take 183 more, if you please, Mr. Johnson.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is in select theaters now. It debuts on Netflix on December 12.
