Wake Up Dead Man Review: Josh O'Connor Lights Up the Darkest Knives Out Mystery Yet

In the tradition of other great fictional sleuths, we don't really know that much about Benoit Blanc, the private investigator popularly known as "The Last of the Gentlemen Sleuths" played by Daniel Craig in the three Knives Out films, written and directed by Rian Johnson. We know he's a dandy dresser from the South based on his accent and stylish outfits. We've briefly glimpsed his husband, Phillip (played by Hugh Grant), in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the second film in the series, where we also learned he's friends with Stephen Sondheim, Johnson's Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne, Angela Lansbury, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He's prone to depression and, as this outing emphasizes, contemptuous of religion (or at least of religious hypocrisy). But, really, what else do we need to know? Much of the pleasure of these films comes from watching Blanc in action as he works each case and as he performs the act of working each case, changing up his approach depending on who's watching.

Also, these films aren't really about Blanc. As in his previous adventures, Blanc remains very much at the center of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. But, as before, Wake Up Dead Man isn't really his story. It revolves instead around Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), a young Catholic priest who took up the cloth after a rough upbringing and a boxing career that ended prematurely after the death of one of his opponents. Jud, by his own admission, took the fight too far and plans to spend the rest of his life doing penance by helping others — not that this prevents him from still throwing the occasional punch.

It's this habit that gets him sent to the remote outpost of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude in upstate New York to assist Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), an ostensible promotion that Jud quickly discovers to be a challenge greater than any actual promotion. Wicks delivers sermons rooted in anger and shame for a thinning congregation that remains loyal to him, for various reasons. While newcomers are singled out for one apparent offense or another, be it single mothers or gay couples, the church's regulars remain in thrall to him. Simone (Cailee Spaeny), for instance, believes his promises that God can heal the chronic pain that's sidelined her cello career. Red-pilled sci-fi author Lee (Andrew Scott) sees him as a guru for his increasingly toxic right-wing views. And so on through a supporting cast that includes characters played by Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, and Glenn Close.

8.9

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Movie

at Netflix

Like

• Great performances from the entire cast but especially O'Connor
• The memorable setting and twisty mystery

Dislike

• Some more time with the other characters might have been nice

It's a group that only reluctantly welcomes Jud, whose more generous notions of who God is and what the Church should be clash with Jefferson's (who even finds ways to turn his confessions into acts of aggression). Then the already tense situation takes a dramatic turn thanks to what is soon dubbed the Good Friday Murder. When Jud becomes the prime suspect, he feels compelled to reach out to the one man he believes can solve the crime and get him off the hook: Benoit Blanc.

Like previous Knives Out entries, Wake Up Dead Man features an elaborate plot in which wheels spin within wheels within wheels. (The murder weapon, for instance, is a clue with elaborate and tangled origins in addition to being a striking visual.) And, also like previous entries, Johnson's latest is a whodunit with lofty thematic aspirations. Some members of Jefferson's flock might verge on caricature, but collectively they contribute to a nuanced exploration of how faith gets perverted and employed to serve ungodly ends. Through it all, Jud serves as a counterexample. In one of the film's best scenes, he attempts to rush through a phone call only to find himself consoling a woman who needs his help (played by Somebody Somewhere's Bridget Everett). Even Blanc's professed atheism seems challenged in his presence.

O'Connor delivers a remarkable performance that's comically deft one moment, touching the next, and intense throughout. By making Jud the focus, Wake Up Dead Man doesn't allow quite as much time to the other colorful supporting characters as its predecessors, but it's a worthy trade-off. O'Connor doesn't just rise to meet material that folds substantive questions into a whodunit puzzle, he elevates it. (There's another standout performance, but singling it out might count as a spoiler.) Johnson complements the performance by creating a pervasive sense of dread and mortal peril that makes this the darkest entry in the series, literally and otherwise. It's not really a spoiler to note that Blanc cracks the case in the end. He always cracks the case. But it's the questions Wake Up Dead Man leaves unanswered that make it the most memorable Blanc outing yet.

Premieres: Friday, Dec. 12 on Netflix after a short theatrical run
Who's in it: Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close
Who's behind it: Rian Johnson
For fans of: Poker Face, previous Knives Out films, whodunits