In the middle of Good Friday Mass, a priest drops dead in an anteroom directly off the altar. A firebrand, this priest – Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (a very good Josh Brolin) – hasn’t exactly endeared himself to the community at large (or to the new, young priest assigned to the parish). But he does have a loyal band of parishioners, all of whom were at that Mass. So, who killed the Monsignor and why? Thus begins the mystery at the heart of Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in writer-director Rian Johnson’s Benoit Blanc (or, as Netflix is insisting on saying a Knives Out Mystery) series of films.
As was the case with the original Knives Out and its sequel The Glass Onion, Johnson has brought together a host of acting talent to fill in the field of suspects for the murder of the monsignor. (Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Thomas Haden Church, and Daryl McCormack all appear.) But at the center of the story – and, for my money, the real star of the piece – is Josh O’Connor as Father Jud Duplenticy. You see, while the previous Knives Out stories have had one civilian who worked alongside Blanc (Daniel Craig, clearly still having an absolute ball with the character), this is the first time that that civilian has really taken center stage in the story itself. Jud is working with Blanc (and Mila Kunis’ Geraldine Scott, the police chief) to try to solve the murder – hopefully to absolve himself of the heaps of suspicion that has fallen on him as the “outsider” in this tight group of parishioners who seemed to idolize the monsignor. But Jud is also our POV character. Johnson has him narrate the first section of the film (for reasons that are revealed midway through in a nifty bit of plotting). We see each of these supporting characters through his eyes, we take on his biases, we trust his beliefs. And we trust in him.
So, this isn’t really a Benoit Blanc mystery (although he’s certainly there to solve the mystery and is an utter delight throughout). It’s really the story of Father Jud. And you know what? O’Connor absolutely rises to the challenge. He’s just spectacular throughout, crafting a character who is both hugely sympathetic and potentially suspicious. After all, he has a motive. And means. And opportunity. But is he a killer? Well, I’ll leave that for you to discover when you watch the film.
But the problem with making Wake Up Dead Man more a story about Father Jud and less a story about Benoit Blanc rolling into town and shaking loose the truth of a murder is that we spend most of our time with Father Jud (and Blanc when he’s working with him). Which means this time around, we don’t really get to know our supporting characters as well as in past films. And some truly exceptional actors get very little to do over the course of the film (I won’t say which ones lest I potentially tip of who might be involved in the murder). But that left me a bit disappointed at the close. Sure, everyone gets at least one scene to make their own – we have to spend a little bit of time learning our suspects – but I was shocked to look back and realize that some folks I would have expected to have played a big role in the story were more or less just background.
My other disappointment – although I suppose it’s more of a quibble – is that the final unraveling of the mystery left me a touch cold. In the previous films, you could go back and watch the clues reveal themselves to you. They were all there, if only you knew where to look. This time around, while most of the mystery is there for you to find, there are some pieces that aren’t. Sure, you can deduce them. But this isn’t a mystery where you can rewind and catch each piece of the puzzle. Once it’s revealed, it all makes perfect sense. But you need that explanation to fully know what happened. Which was a bummer.
So, is Wake Up Dead Man worth a watch? As someone who has been a big fan of these Benoit Blanc stories, it is absolutely worth your time. If you liked the previous films, you’ll like this one. I will say, I think it’s the weakest of the three – and it’s also the longest and I think it could have been trimmed a bit to make it a bit tighter. The cast, for what they get to do, are absolutely top notch. It’s laugh out loud funny throughout with a genuinely beautiful central performance from Josh O’Connor. Truly, he’s just great. So long as Johnson and Craig want to keep making these movies, I’ll keep seeing them. You will absolutely be entertained.
Wake Up Dead Man premieres in select theatres on November 26. It will be released on Netflix on December 12. This film was screened at the Chicago International Film Festival.
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