Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, 2025.
Written and Directed by Rian Johnson.
Starring Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Wright, Annie Hamilton, Kerry Frances, James Faulkner, Cecilia Blair, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Noah Segan, and Bridget Everett.
SYNOPSIS:
When young priest Jud Duplenticy is sent to assist charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, it’s clear that all is not well in the pews. After a sudden and seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, the lack of an obvious suspect prompts local police chief Geraldine Scott to join forces with renowned detective Benoit Blanc to unravel a mystery that defies all logic.
Donald Trump once proclaimed something along the lines that he could shoot a man in broad daylight and not lose a single follower. This is relevant since, once again, writer/director Rian Johnson’s private detective Benoit Blanc (portrayed by Daniel Craig as slightly older, fuzzy-bearded, and weathered, but still somewhere between aloof and astute) is investigating a murder mystery with a contemporary bent inseparable from current events, yet thoughtfully so. Titled Wake Up Dead Man, this time, part of that mystery involves a small-town church where the leader of its flock, Mons. Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a crotchety and power-hungry preacher who takes demented glee in conducting sermons like a Trumpian figure, denigrating his followers and only reaching satisfaction when a newcomer leaves in disgust, leaving behind the most loyal, brainwashed followers and some other strays typically on the verge of walking out.
Naturally, this makes for a mystery in which those followers are the suspects, each of them possibly having a motive to get rid of Jefferson Wicks. There is also a new priest in town, Fr. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor in charming doofus mode, with the occasional heavy scene), transferred over due to an unbecoming incident that violated priestly duties. Amusingly, the character’s entire vibe is about wanting to be a respectable priest who saves souls through confession, but he’s also a bit of a bumbling idiot who often slips up, taking the Lord’s name in vain and saying things like “holy shit” in front of his peers. In that sense, it also makes the character a fascinating juxtaposition to Benoit Blanc, which significantly plays into aspects of the mystery here, allowing Rian Johnson to respect the professions of both characters while turning the expected climax on its head in a brilliant piece of subversion.
Through narration and an extended opening, viewers learn about the town and the church through Jud’s perspective (which, in theory, could make parts of his retelling of these events mildly unreliable), who is routinely taken aback and upset by the way Jefferson Wicks unleashes insults on his followers. The suspects range from a shady doctor played by Jeremy Renner, a once promising sci-fi author who flushed his goodwill from audiences down the toilet and started writing paranoid nonsense (Andrew Scott), a lawyer (Kerry Washington), a police chief (Mila Kunis), a groundskeeper (Thomas Haden Church), a prodigy musician forced to give up her craft due to an illness temporarily and here seeking a miracle recovery from being disabled (Cailee Spaeny) and a failed right wing wannabe politician obsessed with social media (Daryl McCormack). Admittedly, it sometimes feels like a stretch that these people haven’t left. Then one remembers who got reelected as president…
There is also a mystery within a mystery as Jud becomes acquainted with Glenn Close’s devout Martha Delacroix, who has been around this plot of land forever, but more importantly, long enough to see how Jefferson Wicks’ father instilled a misogynistic mindset into him as a child through incessant and relentless uncalled for shaming of his sister Grace, a woman comfortable embracing her sexuality while also wearing revealing clothing and generally going against the grain of what this holier than thou community expected .Part of that flashback involves the destruction of this church, at one point. There is also a missing fortune that Jefferson Wicks never got to inherit.
Somehow, Rian Johnson hasn’t taken on too much with this dense plotting and multi-tiered mystery. More impressive is its structure, throwing viewers right into a series of character introductions as Jud recounts his first months in the town as the new priest. The filmmaker trusts that he doesn’t need to immediately give Benoit Blanc something to do, confident in his ability to put the moving parts into motion without him. Perhaps even more bold is how openly Rian Johnson places his whodunit influences right on-screen. However, what’s most impressive is his ability to switch perspectives and jump into flashbacks or leap forward in time, playing with structure throughout the two-and-a-half-hour runtime without losing any narrative steam, even when making creative choices that would usually result in sagging.
Once again, strikingly shot, with a loaded ensemble that makes their interactions alone worth watching, Wake Up Dead Man is also about the fact that, for Benoit Blanc, this is another game. It’s another fun mystery to crack, reaching the satisfying checkmate point where he dismantles and dresses down every character and plot point while snapping the truth into focus, which comes with a unique spin this time. It’s a job directly at odds with Jud’s mission to hear others out and try to help wrongdoers reform and get back on the right path. For Jud, it’s not something to be treated as a game, as these are real people he is trying to protect and save, even if he dislikes the majority of them and doesn’t understand why they don’t leave Jefferson Wicks’ abusive church.
The film is also another socially charged narrative, implementing themes of manipulation through false understandings and teachings of Christianity, misogyny, and how it can be passed down from generation to generation, power-hungry mentalities to further weaponize brainwashing on a larger scale, with thoughts of running for president, and finding absolution. Yes, Rian Johnson is knocking the bad-faith Christians down a peg, but he also shows a strong understanding and respect for what it means to be a Christian or religious individual with noble intentions. Without question, he understands the Bible better than the majority of those who claim to have read it front to back multiple times and that it’s a daily part of their lives.
Wake Up Dead Man is another slickly told whodunit with the quirky genius of Benoit Blanc. Rather than take the social commentary and force in preachy messaging, these elements exist for the viewer to ponder while serving the mysteries at hand, culminating in some emotional plot threads. Bluntly put, Rian Johnson continues to be one of the sharpest filmmakers around, never settling for the easy route but rather something much deeper and more complex. This could have been 2+ hours of religious bashing, but it is something much more cutting and smarter than that, blending dignified, intentionally well-meaning priestly work with numerous justified swipes at Christian extremism while also offering genuine insight into its behavioral consequences amid the laughs and thrills.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
