Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – LFF Film Review
Although I’m not the biggest fan of the Knives Out franchise, I’m always keen to see what Rian Johnson comes up with for his next whodunnit. Wake Up Dead Man, the third Knives Out film, is probably the weakest of the bunch, even though it’s still an enjoyable murder mystery.
Daniel Craig is back as detective Benoit Blanc, who arrives on the scene at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a Catholic church in upstate New York, to investigate the death of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). All the evidence points to young priest Jud (Josh O’Connor), who hated how Wicks ran the church, so he teams up with Blanc to clear his name and find the real killer.
The star of the show is usually Craig as his charming PI with a distinctive Southern accent. He’s still brilliant and one of the film’s highlights, but this time around, he comes second to O’Connor and his fantastic, scene-stealing performance as a naive, idealistic priest harbouring a lot of guilt. He’s interesting, complex and often quite funny. Jud is the heart of the film and the story revolves around him, whereas Blanc shows up a while into the movie (what an entrance though).
They are surrounded by a huge ensemble cast and, as often happens in murder mysteries, the rest are thinly sketched characters that don’t have a ton to do because there’s no room for it. They’re just there to bulk up the list of suspects. There’s the church secretary Martha (Glenn Close), groundskeeper Samson (Thomas Haden Church), police officer Geraldine (Mila Kunis) and then Wicks’ loyal followers Dr. Nat (Jeremy Renner), lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), aspiring politician Cy (Daryl McCormack), author Lee (Andrew Scott) and cello player Simone (Cailee Spaeny). Close has a solid amount to do as the church busybody – she’s fabulous – but Scott and Spaeny are completely shafted.
Wake Up Dead Man marks a return to classic Agatha Christie vibes after the fun and silly Glass Onion. It feels darker than previous instalments, but it thankfully doesn’t lose its comic edge either. I was intrigued by the central locked door mystery, but there’s so much backstory and context to explain that it unfolds in a convoluted, overlong way and I never felt fully engaged by it. Two hours and 20 minutes is an insane runtime for a murder mystery!
I fully respect Johnson for coming up with a completely different setting, scenario and set of characters for each Knives Out instalment. I have liked them all but I’m yet to wholeheartedly enjoy one, mostly due to the overcomplicated storytelling.
Showing at the London Film Festival. In select cinemas from 26th November and on Netflix from 12th December