‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Benoit Blanc Is Back

Imagine a literary mash-up of G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown amateur detective stories and John Dickson Carr’s locked-room mystery The Hollow Man, together with what appears to be a sly takedown of a current political leader whose power comes from preaching anger and fear. The result is Wake Up Dead Man, the third entry in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out murder mystery series. The new film promises a return from the exhausting Greek Island excesses of Glass Onion to the more compact pleasures of the first movie, swapping the country house for a small Catholic church and rectory in upstate New York.

But appearances can be deceptive, as any good sleuth knows, and this puzzler with neo-Gothic trappings, while it gets off to a promising, very funny start, becomes too clever and convoluted for its own good. That becomes apparent almost as soon as the investigation gets underway and the movie starts losing its fizz. What it does have, however, is the considerable plus of Josh O’Connor as a former boxer turned priest who becomes both a murder suspect and a Watson to Benoit Blanc’s Sherlock Holmes.

Blanc, of course, is the suave Southern gent with the stylish suits and exaggerated drawl played by Daniel Craig with wit, panache and flashes of mischief. Benoit and O’Connor’s Father Jud Duplenticy make a delightful pair, the two British actors sparking off each other with infectious enjoyment.

Perhaps because the case causes him to question his previously unshakeable belief in rationality, Blanc all but cedes the spotlight throughout much of the intrigue. But he grabs it back in the wrap-up, with a hilarious Phantom of the Opera gag and an actual elevated pulpit from which this loquacious peacock delivers his denouement. He even gets bathed in a shaft of heavenly light at one point.

Father Jud ends up at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude as a disciplinary measure after he breaks the jaw of an “asshole deacon” whom no one likes anyway. He will be assistant priest in a small parish under Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). But before he gets too excited, a senior church official who has gotten him out of trouble before (played with deliciously dry humor by an in-demand actor in an unbilled cameo) warns the young priest that the Monsignor is known to be “a few beads short of a full rosary.”

That proves an understatement when Father Jud — “young, dumb and full of Christ,” to use his own words — gets his first taste of Monsignor Wicks’ scary intensity. Even more so when he hears the older clergyman’s eyebrow-raising confession.

No less odd is Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), a devout believer who does everything from keeping the books and filing away documents to playing the organ at Mass and laundering the Monsignor’s vestments. One of the standouts, along with Brolin, of the starry ensemble, Close’s entrance alone is priceless.

The new arrival also meets the church’s flock, which includes town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner); successful attorney Vera Draven (Kerry Washington); Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), a bestselling author whose stock has plummeted; accomplished cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), whose career ended when a chronic nerve condition put her in a wheelchair; Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), a failed politician and the alleged half-brother of Vera, always armed with a small camera and mic to capture YouTube content; and longtime groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), who has something going on with Martha.

A little later they are joined by local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), who’s somewhat skeptical about the way Blanc conducts an investigation but gives him her full support regardless.

Granted there’s pleasure in watching such magnetic actors bite into colorful character parts. But unlike Close and Brolin, both in fine form, the rest are given too little to do. Every one of those roles could have been played by any number of capable actors. (Though it’s fascinating how precisely McCormack seems to be channeling a young Jeff Goldblum.) It almost seems like Johnson is in competition with Wes Anderson to recruit the starriest ensemble, though he needs to make better use of them.

When Father Jud starts assisting at Mass, he bristles at how markedly different Monsignor Wicks’ views on spreading God’s love seem from his own. In his fiery homilies, the Monsignor seems to target one new congregation member per week, pushing for the victory of a walkout. Not one to avoid confrontations, Father Jud questions him on his methods and the Monsignor scoffs that the push for kindness and goodness has failed, and only by instilling fear and anger can they protect their sacred institution.

While Johnson’s previous two Knives Out movies took digs at wealth inequality and class warfare, their commentary on political hypocrisy was more subtle. Here, he takes aim directly at strongmen leaders who coopt religion as a means for spreading hate and consolidating power.

When Father Jud organizes a prayer meeting in the rectory, the regulars are dismayed to learn that not only is the Monsignor not coming but he hasn’t even been informed that it’s happening. This scandalizes the loyal parishioners, most of all Martha, who wastes no time texting the boss and putting the Monsignor on the warpath.

A murder happens virtually right under everyone’s noses, and the group is quick to point fingers at Father Jud as the likeliest suspect, despite zero evidence. But Benoit Blanc, who appears mysteriously, isn’t so easily convinced the young priest is the perpetrator of what he sees as an impossible crime.

As befits the setting of an old stone house of worship with a shadowy churchyard, theological themes surface concerning everything from faith to resurrection to desecration to the nature of miracles. There’s also much talk of Eve’s sin in the garden of Eden. All this adds shadings especially to O’Connor’s character, since Father Jud believes discovering Christianity saved his life. But the overlong movie loses momentum despite the fun that Craig and O’Connor have as the two men develop a relaxed rapport while digging for clues.

As always, Johnson delivers a great-looking movie, with sharp work from cinematographer Steve Yedlin, richly detailed production design by Rick Hendrichs and character-enhancing costumes by Jenny Eagan.

While the film is uneven and doesn’t serve the deluxe cast equally, as a vehicle for O’Connor it’s revelatory. The actor has been on an incredible roll this year, with Max Walker-Silverman’s quietly wrenching cowboy portrait Rebuilding at Sundance, followed in Cannes by Kelly Reichardt’s funny-sad art heist movie The Mastermind and Oliver Hermanus’ early 20th century queer love story, The History of Sound. At this point it seems safe to say he’s one of our most versatile and reliably excellent actors and I’d see him in anything.