It's three for three in Rian Johnson's whodunit series, with Daniel Craig returning as gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc for a gothic mystery full of dark humour, topical jabs, and a commanding performance from Josh O’Connor.
Confess!
Depending on who you are, you’re either terrified that the Spanish inquisition has just burst into the room; you’re about to repent your sins in a confessional; or you’re heading to the police station to give an incriminating statement.
Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man concerns itself with how two of these intersect. Spoiler: Cardinal Fang and his lot are sadly absent from the third installment in his whodunit Knives Out series.
The follow-up to 2022’s Glass Onion swaps the summery setting and the takedown of tech billionaires for a more wintry and gothic exploration of faith, morality and blind belief. This is done through the story of Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), a former boxer who has become a priest and wants to heal the world rather than fight it. He is sent to the small town of Chimney Rock in upstate New York and is assigned to the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, which is run by the self-styled Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Whereas Father Jud is more New Testament, the Monsignor is all fire-and-brimstone, preaching hateful rhetoric that confirms he is indeed a few beads shy of a full rosary.
Father Jud believes that his moral opposite has a stranglehold on his congregation, and when he confronts him, he vows to cut him out “like a cancer” in order to save the church. It's no wonder then that when the Monsignor drops dead during his Good Friday service, everyone’s suspicions turn to the young priest.
It’s up to gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, returning as the Southern Columbo with a fantastic collection of suits) to solve the crime. He “kneels at the altar of the rational” and needs to discover who among the church’s eclectic congregation is capable of murder most foul.
Is it the bitterly divorced doctor (Jeremy Renner); the fed up high-end lawyer (Kerry Washington) who is raising a MAGA influencer (Daryl McCormack); Wick’s devout right-hand woman (Glenn Close); the groundskeeper (Thomas Haden Church); the washed-up sci-fi author who’s “unplugging his brain from the liberal hive mind” (Andrew Scott); a cellist with a “mysterious nerve thing” (Cailee Spaeny)? Or could Father Jud have snapped and orchestrated the perfect crime?
Over the course of three Knives Out films, Johnson has craftily played with the conventions of the murder-mystery genre, and he openly cites his references for Wake Up Dead Man. At one point, Benoit Blanc discovers an Oprah-approved reading list, on which is featured Agatha Christie’s "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and John Dickson Carr’s "The Hollow Man".
It’s an impressive mood board that should give audiences a clue as to the tone Wake Up Dead Man is aiming for, as well as its reverence to its central locked-door mystery – a treasured staple of the murder-mystery genre. To this, Johnson adds some sly lambasting of Trump's America – whether it’s the despotic Monsignor Wicks and his hateful preaching, his devoted flock which serves as an obvious allegory for cults of personality, or even a cheeky dig at DOGE.
However, instead of focusing too much on his satirical jabs and contemporary observations - something which plagued Glass Onion a bit too much - Johnson takes care not to be too... preachy. Wake Up Dead Man is a captivating murder mystery, first and foremost, one propelled by a witty script, a dark sense of humour, and an engrossing central duo.
Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc has always had a noble-hearted sidekick. We’ve had Ana de Armas in Knives Out and Janelle Monáe in Glass Onion, and Wake Up Dead Man gives us arguably the best pairing with Josh O’Connor. He carries the show, convincingly playing an earnest man seeking absolution (“young, dumb, and full of Christ”, as he puts it), but also a man who battles his unresolved inner darkness. Father Jud’s beliefs should clash with those of a “proud heretic”, but the buddy-movie dynamic created by O’Connor and Craig works wonders, with Johnson understanding that their chemistry enrichens the storytelling and even expands the mystery genre as a whole, as seen in the film’s conclusion.
There are a few bum notes along the way, notably the feeling that the impressive ensemble cast do feel underused at times (Mila Kunis as Chimney Rock’s police chief is underserved and barely registers) and the execution does feel a little baggy before the denouement. However, Johnson delivers some very satisfying twists and does stick the landing in a surprisingly moving finale that ponders whether it’s still possible to adhere to the righteous tenets of a faith based on forgiveness, one which has been insidiously weaponised by those who forego self-reflection and instead choose to damn others.
More than that, Johnson has the good grace to cap the whole thing off with the perfect needledrop - Tom Waits’ ‘Come On Up To The House’, the lyrics of which deftly complement the setting but also reflect the film’s approaches to religion with humour: “Come down off the cross, we can use the wood.”
On the strength of this third installment in the Blanc-verse, it’s clear that Johnson and Craig have pulled off a hugely rewarding triptych. Here's hoping they extend their partnership for another three crafty mysteries.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is streaming on Netflix on 12 December.
