By going back to basics, Wake Up Dead Man might be the best of the Knives Out bunch.
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Despite directing a twisty bit of sci-fi and a Star Wars movie, Rian Johnson's career has been defined by...murder mysteries. His breakout film Brick was a bit of neo-noir goodness with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (whom Johnson loves to bring into any of his projects) and since then he's produced two seasons of Columbo-inspired murder mysteries with Natasha Lyone in Poker Face and now three Benoit Blanc/Knives Out movies. But while Johnson spent the last two films having fun with the genre, often switching narrative devices, perspectives and paradigms midway through, for Wake Up Dead Man he's opted for something different. Make a traditional one. And it rules.
The Setup
Set in a costal town in upstate New York, the film centers around Father Jud, a Catholic priest who's been made assistant pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. A parish that is dwindling by the day and run by the fire and brimstone teachings of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. But when Wicks is killed during a Good Friday service in a seemingly impossible way, the police decide to bring in Benoit Blanc to find answers and hopefully clear Father Jud's name.
As I alluded to before, the name of the game with the Knives Out movies has been a traditional murder mystery with a fun narrative hook or two. In the first film it starts as a murder mystery, then moves into a crime movie where our lead character is trying to stay a step ahead of the detective, before reverting back at the end. The second film has a much more traditional twist that drops about halfway through and changes the audience's perception of what's happening before its more explosive reveal/finishes and finale.
This time around, Johnson is going for a much more traditional structure to deliver perhaps the most pointed movie of the franchise (which is saying something). The only framing device is our priest delivering almost all of the character background and exposition we need up front before we dive right into the murder and investigation and begin pulling the threads from there.
And considering the subject matter, I think it works really well. Why? A few big reasons.
Solid Reflections on Faith
It's been said, more than a few times, that murder mysteries are frequently deeper than you might expect. Because of the format, your suspects, what they value and what they want to protect and even how and when the murder happens can hold thematic weight.
For instance, Murder on the Orient Express is both an intriguing mystery and also a reflection on shared trauma and guilt and the last two Knives Out movies have done their best to unwrap the wealthy either as entitled children or manipulative jerks that have never been challenged by anyone in their orbit.
Wake Up Dead Man is..a movie long rumination on the function and purpose of faith. Which sounds a lot more pretentious than it actually is on screen. And that's because of our movie's conduit Josh O'Connor's Father Jud.
As the son of two ministers one of my biggest irritations in modern culture is how faith is so frequently weaponized against the people who need help and charity the most, and how ministers are either depicted as paragons of virtue or selfish bigots.
Both notions that Wake Up Dead Man shakes off right away by showing an achingly sincere Father Jud punching a deacon (that gets him sent to this church) and a few meetings with a foul-mouthed cardinal played by Jeffrey Wright.
So when Father Jud arrives and sees how Monsignor Wicks operates, as a petty tyrant who seems to relish in getting walkouts during his sermons, the movie is making it clear that Wicks does not represent the ideal function of faith and seems entirely motivated by self-interest and hate. Whereas Jud wants the church to be a place of community, healing, and support and is pained by the poison Wicks spews. Jud is a flawed man, but he is clearly wants to help anyone he can and knows firsthand how faith can provide comfort in trying times.
It means that when Benoit Blanc arrives to apply logic and reason and take swings at organized religion in some bad-ass monologues, O'Connor's Jud is the one to offer compassionate counterpoints vs. an angry tirade.
And that dynamic works really well as Blanc brings Jud into his investigation and tries to push Jud to see things his way when Blanc might need to see things from a more religious perspective, to solve the case.
The debates circling in and around this movie about faith's function and how it is used also, for the most part, also avoid the inclusion of modern day political terms that have always aged these movies just a little bit. Instead it's about what it is or isn't doing for/to the congregation. As Father Jud quickly identifies, for as much as he preaches, Wicks doesn't seem to have the best interest of his congregation in mind. He is single-mindedly focused on his worldview and loyalty. Meanwhile his congregants fester in their anger.
I also thoroughly enjoy the ongoing visual motif of light and darkness with light coming in when ideas like gentleness or compassion are being conveyed, while darkness reigns as we dive into the church's sins or the sins of the congregation.
Flawlessly Acted
Half the fun of the Knives Out movies are the excellent one two combo of a cartoonish Daniel Craig interacting with equally cartoonish supporting characters, almost all of whom are suspects in the murder.
What makes this one slightly different is that there's a lot more reliance on the actor's dramatic chops this time around, Craig included. Which is both a welcome wrinkle and also means you have actors who can crush monologues time to shine including some better than it has any right to be indignation from Josh Brolin as our victim, pashioners played by Kerry Washington and Glen Close. A murder mystery really requires all of them to wear unsaid words on their sleeve before they come spilling out and this might be the best of the bunch in that regard.
And there's sweet sweet Josh O'Connor as Father Jud.
So much so that seemingly offbeat choices like Mila Kunis as our local police chief or more minor suspects like Andrew Scott's sci-fi author can provide conflict/direction or comic relief without drawing too much attention to themselves.
And there's sweet sweet Josh O'Connor as Father Jud.
The Knives Out movies have all chosen a moral compass for the movie, and while that has been Blanc for two go-rounds, that actually shifts to Jud here, whose example is so strong it actually impacts Blanc versus Blanc impacting everyone else (which is another welcome shakeup). The thing I like the most about this performance is how his inherent goodness, both as a man and as a priest, is so integral to the plot but rarely, if ever comes across as preachy. Hard line to maintain and he does an excellent job.
Also considering how much of this movie relies on O'Connor banter partnering with Blanc, you had to get this right and I'm thankful they did.
And you already knew that Craig's Blanc would be great, but with a lot more obvious background and personal character filtering in. In movie one he was basically an enigma until the end. In the second he spends most of his time pissed off. In the third he's merging both of those images, blending his enigmatic past with a few details to somewhat explain how/why he is the way he is (see a very religious mother growing up and his disdain for religion).
It really does give the feeling that they could make a dozen more of these until Craig and Johnson get sick of it.
Still A Bit Silly
With all of the talk of faith and dramatic monologues, you might be concerned that Johnson and company have gotten a touch too serious. Thankfully not the case. Johnson is more than happy to take swipes and his own created easy targets (i.e. one of our suspects is a want to be conservative influencer and politician), Benoit Blanc remains as blasee as humanly possible about things most folks would handle more delicately, and O'Connor's Father Jud shifts between righteous and slapstick silly, sometimes in single scenes.
Not only is this a good way to keep things from being too preachy or morose, it also means the movie can employ more dynamics without upsetting the established franchise tone, that drifts between humor and horror in equal measure.
The Verdict: Another Home Run
By going back to basics, Wake Up Dead Man might be the best of the Knives Out bunch. 8/10
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