What’s It About

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, or simply Wake Up Dead Man, is an upcoming American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is a standalone sequel to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and the third installment overall in the Knives Out film series.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

I want to be straight with you about this new Benoit Blanc mystery. After watching “Wake Up Dead Man,” I walked out of the theater feeling kind of confused about what I just spent two and a half hours watching. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good parts here. But this third movie in the series has some serious problems that keep it from being as entertaining as it should be. First problem: Daniel Craig’s detective character doesn’t even show up until almost 40 minutes into the film. That’s wild, right? In the first two movies, we meet Benoit Blanc within the first ten minutes. Here, we spend all that time getting to know Father Jud Duplenticy, played by Josh O’Connor. Jud is a young priest with a complicated past. He used to be a boxer, and he once killed someone in the ring by accident. After he loses his temper and punches a deacon, the church sends him to work at a small parish called Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude in a weirdly quiet town called Chimney Rock. The problem is that this church is run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, played by Josh Brolin. So, Wicks is probably one of the most annoying characters I’ve seen in a movie this year. He’s supposed to be this super conservative, fire-and-brimstone preacher who yells at his congregation about politics instead of actually helping people. The movie makes it really obvious that he’s meant to remind you of a certain real-life “orange” politician. He drives away most of his members by being mean and judgmental, leaving only six loyal followers who still come to church. Here’s where the mystery starts: somebody kills Wicks during a Good Friday service. The movie tries to make this seem like an impossible crime that nobody could have done because of where everyone was standing. That should make for an exciting mystery to solve, but honestly, it doesn’t work that well. The biggest issue with this movie is how it handles all these characters. In the first “Knives Out,” everyone was stuck in one big house together, so we got to see them interact and learn about their personalities. In “Glass Onion,” everyone was trapped on an island. But in this one, all the suspects just live in a regular town and go home after church. We barely get to know any of them beyond a quick introduction. The movie introduces six main suspects, but they might as well be cardboard cutouts. You’ve got Kerry Washington playing a lawyer, Andrew Scott as a paranoid science fiction writer, Jeremy Renner as a struggling doctor, and Cailee Spaeny as a former cellist. But none of them get enough screen time to actually matter. If they just wanted to give money away, I’ve got a bank account that could use some help. I mean, they wasted some really talented actors by not giving them anything interesting to do. The only exception is Glenn Close, who plays Martha, the uptight church secretary. She gets a few moments to really shine, especially toward the end. Josh O’Connor does a solid job as Father Jud, though. His character is trying to be a good priest who shows people love and forgiveness instead of judgment. He has a backstory about guilt and redemption that the movie keeps coming back to. O’Connor makes you believe that this guy genuinely cares about helping people, even when the writing gets a little preachy. There’s one funny scene where someone asks who picked all these murder mystery books for the church book club, and he just says “Oprah” with this completely innocent face. It’s a dumb joke, but O’Connor sells it perfectly. When Benoit Blanc finally shows up, he comes with all his usual charm and that thick Southern accent Daniel Craig does. The movie tries to add something new by making him question faith and religion, since he’s an atheist investigating a murder in a church. But this idea never really goes anywhere interesting. The film tries to project some deep truth about truth and belief, but it ends up feeling shallow. The mystery itself is where everything falls apart. There are too many twists and turns that don’t make sense until the very end, when Blanc explains everything in one long speech. But here’s the thing, most of the clues and information he talks about are things we never saw or could never have figured out ourselves. Good mysteries let you play along and try to solve the case. This one just throws random surprises at you and expects you to be impressed. The movie also takes forever to get going. Nothing really happens for the first forty minutes except people talking and arguing. Once the murder finally happens, we still have to sit through a bunch of slow scenes where characters explain their feelings about faith, politics, and truth. Some of these conversations are okay, but mostly they just make the movie drag. I will say that the film looks nice. The church setting gives everything a dark and demonic atmosphere, complete with stained-glass windows and Gothic architecture. The filmmakers clearly put thought into making it feel like a classic mystery story, separate from modern times. But pretty visuals can’t fix a weak story. What really bothers me is that this series used to be fun. The first “Knives Out” was smart and entertaining, with memorable characters and a clever plot. “Glass Onion” was a bit messier but still enjoyable. This third one feels tired, like Rian Johnson is just going through the motions. The jokes aren’t as funny. The mystery isn’t as clever. The characters aren’t as interesting. By the time we get to the big reveal at the end, I honestly didn’t care who killed Monsignor Wicks. The movie spends so much time trying to say something important about religion and politics that it forgets to be an entertaining mystery. And let’s be real, the message isn’t exactly subtle. We get it: some religious leaders use faith to control people and push their own agenda. That’s not a new observation, and the movie beats us over the head with it. Look, if you’re a straight fan of the Benoit Blanc series, you’ll probably still want to check this out. Daniel Craig is as charming as ever, and there are a few genuinely funny moments scattered throughout. Josh O’Connor brings real warmth to his role, and Glenn Close is always good. But overall, “Wake Up Dead Man” is the weakest entry in the franchise so far. The movie tries to do too much—it wants to be a murder mystery, a criticism of conservative Christianity, and a character study all at once. Instead of doing any of these things well, it ends up being just okay at all of them. At two and a half hours, it’s also way too long for a story this simple. If they make another one of these movies, I hope they go back to what made the first one work: a tight group of characters, a clear mystery that we can actually solve along with the detective, and less time spent on heavy-handed messages. Give us more fun and less preaching. Yeah, I know, it’s in a church, but it should still be fun. That’s what made us fall in love with Benoit Blanc in the first place.

OUR RATING – A MYSTERIOUS 5