“This was dressed as a miracle. It’s just a murder – and I solve murders”, announces Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the twenty first century’s most beloved detective in Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man, the third instalment of his equally beloved Knives Out series. Back with a lineup of A-listers to die for and that gives The White Lotus (also in its third instalment) a run for its money, Johnson’s latest is an effective meditation on the meaning of truth, belief and forgiveness, as Blanc is sent to investigate a “locked door” murder in a small parish. It’s a stroke of genius second only to Blanc’s detective flair: an impossible crime – or a potential “miracle” – in a religious setting.
Josh O’Connor stars as Reverend Jud Duplenticy, a young priest sent to assist at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a rather secluded church led by the charismatic Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin on top comedic form). Told in retrospective voiceover, Duplenticy acts as our guide in the action preceding the murder, presenting us our cast of suspects: the church’s resident Mrs Danvers, Martha (Glenn Close), the town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), conspiracy author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), disabled former cellist Simone (Cailee Spaeny), and successful lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) and her adoptive son Cy (Daryl McComarck), who left in pursuit of a political career and returned with his tail between his legs. Together they form what can only be described as Wicks’ cult – in other words, few are those who show up to his sermons for the first time and stay around. Wicks has designed everything so that his surroundings are familiar and manipulable – and it quickly becomes clear that Duplenticy, who is anything but duped by his antiques, is not welcome in his church. It is fairly obvious who the murder concerns – and yet it is the first time that I did not guess who the murderer was (source of my frustration with the previous two instalments). This is also an interesting question Wake Up Dead Man poses – while Blanc is so intent on finding “whodunit”, Duplenticy noticeably struggles with the boundary between the truth and his truth, that sins do not matter so long as the sinner repents. For the first time, Blanc encounters difficulty not only because it is a locked door murder that is seemingly impossible, but because those seemingly on his side do not align with his values. It is a deeply interesting twist on the traditional murder mystery, and one that is very much of our time, highlighting the vast void between opinions in today’s age. As such, Wake Up Dead Man is certainly the darkest of the three (including in aesthetic, a far cry from Glass Onion with its gothic and classic Christie inspirations), deeply preoccupied with the current climate of blind faith and political turmoil. While Wicks is referred to as having a “cult of personality”, with “Wicks truthers” in tow, next generation Cy spreads misinformation on YouTube, editing videos of Wicks’ sermons to fit his agenda. Following his failed political campaign, he says to Duplenticy that he tried everything – “the climate thing, the trans thing, the LGBTQ thing, the racism thing” (the list, rather amusingly, goes on for a solid thirty seconds). If anything, Wake Up Dead Man is a continuation of the political agenda Johnson initially picked up in the original Knives Out – except rather than focusing on prejudice, he has instead turned the microscope on our internal beliefs, and the impact that others – including God – can have on them. Duplenticy says it himself, that the congregation is “scared and paranoid”, but chooses to follow Wicks in a desperate bid to latch onto something they think is real. Enter Blanc, who in his own words “kneels in front of what is rational”.
As a third instalment, Wake Up Dead Man is nothing short of a victorious comeback. Perhaps it is that it’s supporting cast is a little underutilised, with Andrew Scott’s manic writer and Cailee Spaeny’s chronic pain-struck cellist going largely unnoticed. Nevertheless, it is certainly the funniest and most entertaining of the lot so far, cementing O’Connor’s excellent leading man qualities and Brolin’s genius comedic timing. Aesthetically, Johnson shows no signs of slowing down, with lavish interior design and an attention to detail that will certainly warrant many more rewatches – the imagery of a hollow Jesus mirroring the Hollow Man on which the murder is based does not go unnoticed. It simply highlights that Knives Out is back – and is anything but hollow.
Wake Up Dead Man – A Knives Out Mystery screened at the London Film Festival.
