Wake Up Dead Man

As obsessive fans of murder mysteries, we naturally went to see the latest Knives Out film Entitled Wake Up Dead Man, Rian Johnson's third entry in the series is yet another whodunit featuring Daniel Craig as the sleuth, Benoit Blanc. Superior than the second film and surprisingly respective of religion despite Blanc's atheism, the film pays homages to classics of the genre (Carr, Christie) and tries to avoid the familiar format of murder mysteries. This both works and fails in different ways. Johnson and the humorous writing make this an entertaining tale, but the 4 main sections of the plot are uneven in quality and weaken the larger story. By this we refer to the first part, setting the scene with the new parish priest arriving in a small town in New York. Finding the resident priest brash, offensive, and inappropriate, he puts up with verbal abuse by the priest (with some particularly nasty humor) and is prevented from making any effective changes to help the church grow and remain relevant in our modern world. By showing another side of the Catholic Church with a compelling priest played by Josh O'Connor, the film is actually respective of religion while simultaneously condemning the hypocrisy of Josh Brolin's character. 

But once the story shifts to the actual investigation of the inevitable murder, things begin to fall apart. Blanc convinces Duplenticy to aid the investigation as the town is convinced he killed Monsignor Wicks, yet the actual investigation begins to meander and become convoluted. There are some nice homages to Golden Age Detective Fiction and real investigating, with an even funny moment that brings to mind an Agatha Christie classic. Unfortunately, the story's full investigative potential and use of its cast of potential murders is lost by one of the suspects conveniently recording a past meeting with all the suspects and the victims before the murder. This frees Blanc (and Mila Kunis as the sheriff) from any scenes with interrogations of the suspects. Since the murder was seen as a locked room type and all the suspects were sitting down in the pews of the church when it occurred, maybe Johnson thought they could get away with skipping those scenes? The "trick" of the killing is eventually unveiled, but maybe the lack of physical evidence made it difficult to pin the crime to one suspect. Either way, it deprived the investigation segment of the film from potentially interesting and humorous interrogations and psychological observations of the suspects. This is why we felt that some of the characters were underutilized after the first part of the film, such as the lawyer played by Kerry Washington. Maybe the film should have adhered more closely to the standard murder mystery plot structure? 

The last two parts of the film were also problematic, though still enjoyable. An (almost) miraculous resurrection of sorts takes place and for several minutes, Duplenticy is running around in the woods, two more characters die, and the priest looks more suspicious than ever. We learn that Blanc saw through the "trick" right away and, learning from Duplenticy, is surprisingly humble and graceful for the revelation of the real killer. This sequence of events is unnecessarily long in parts and the identity of the killer(s) is not so surprising once an obvious suspect is removed from the equation. I thin the film could have handled the "resurrection sequence/extra murders" in a better way, perhaps by cutting the length? The "big reveal" in the church was, in its own way, respectful to the church and the ending with the lost treasure of Wicks' grandfather was a nice touch. It, unfortunately, felt like a very convoluted and tortured process to reach this point. By the film's end, we were entertained while thinking how the fine cast was underused...

Of course, we can still recommend this. Far better than Glass Onion while being both humorous and surprisingly respectful of religion, the film manages to engage in political satire and puerile humor. Great respect for the genre is also found here whilst also endeavoring to deviate from the formula to avoid being too predictable. However, that familiar structure and routine might have made the actual investigation fuller and utilize the actors playing the suspects more thoroughly. There is a lot of heart in this one though, with Father Duplenticy's crisis of faith and even stopping the investigation to comfort a woman in distress. These little touches make the character more likable and compelling, even rubbing off on Blanc. We just hope the next Knives Out can find a more successful way to both pay homage to the genre and be innovative or playful with the expected format.