Netflix’s “Wake Up Dead Man” Trades Whimsy for Something Darker in New “Knives Out” Installment
In 2019, Rian Johnson released Knives Out. The film was Johnson’s attempt to revitalize the whodunit genre, returning to the world of Agatha Christie and the murder mysteries of yesteryear. With an all-star cast, Knives Out would exceed all expectations and spawn two sequels: 2022’s Glass Onion and this year’s Wake Up Dead Man. While the supporting cast changes, the detective at the center, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), never does. His southern twang, gentlemanly aura, and penchant for charmingly odd one-liners makes Blanc an always-welcome character, but Wake Up Dead Man veers from its predecessors’ paths.
Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is not your typical priest. He takes the Lord’s name in vain quite often, a tattoo peeks above his collar, and before he found God, he was a boxer. All this to say, when push comes to shove, Jud punches. That’s how he finds himself relegated to a remote congregation in a small New England town. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) is the charismatic leader of the church, whose style of preaching veers closer to fire and brimstone than peace and love. When an unexpected death occurs in the congregation, the local police call in the only man who can solve the impossible crime — Benoit Blanc.
courtesy of Netflix
There was a whimsiness to the previous Benoit Blanc mysteries. Quick snaps of dialogue lobbed back and forth in the close groups of friends or family members who suddenly turned suspects. There was a breeziness to those films that leaned into Craig as a more absurd version of Christie’s Hercule Poirot. In Knives Out, Blanc says bizarre things like “What’s the cheese?” and in Glass Onion, we find him in a bubble bath sipping wine. Even though murder is at the center of both of these films, there’s a levity to them that skews toward a breezy comedy.
Wake Up Dead Man is somewhere in between its predecessors’ lighthearted investigations and a serious drama that reckons with the place of religion in our world today. The suspects in Wake Up Dead Man are all members of the congregation. Simone (Cailee Spaeny) suffers from chronic pain and has exhausted all traditional methods of finding relief, but believes Monsignor holds the key. Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) is reeling after his wife left him and finds solace in the church. Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close) is Monsignor’s right-hand woman, the heart and soul of the church. Vera (Kerry Washington) and Cy (Daryl McCormack) Draven’s fortunes are tied to Monsignor because Vera’s father was the church’s lawyer. Lastly, Lee (Andrew Scott) is a sci-fi novelist whose sales are dwindling, but he sees Monsignor as a potential subject for a new book.
courtesy of Netflix
Johnson has compiled an excellent cast of characters for his whodunit, but doesn’t know what to do with them. Despite a 2.5-hour runtime, the supporting characters remain largely underdeveloped. The most glaring issue is that Wake Up Dead Man is centered on the cult of personality surrounding Monsignor Wicks, but struggles to explain why some of the congregation stays as his preachings become more unhinged. If this is a film that’s interested in dissecting how people are drawn in by someone like Monsignor and why they stay, Wake Up Dead Man needs to show the magnetic pull these characters feel. Given the state of the world, it’s no surprise Johnson is intrigued by a man who has used his power to become a commanding presence in a community, but the more serious tone he reaches for goes against the silly whodunits of Knives Out and Glass Onion. Even when Knives Out had a subplot about class struggles through the character of Marta (Ana de Armas), it was still done in a lighthearted manner.
Wake Up Dead Man tries to make Blanc and his playful nature fit into this weighty story about the power of belief. It’s two stories and two styles of filmmaking that are at odds, constantly fighting each other to ultimately make something uneven. It’s a masterfully constructed film with performances that remain engaging throughout, but for a film that will have “A Benoit Blanc Mystery” added to its title, Wake Up Dead Man feels far away from that detective. And if your titular detective doesn’t even appear for nearly an hour, where does that leave you?
support your local film critic!
~
support your local film critic! ~
Beyond the Cinerama Dome is run by one perpetually tired film critic
and her anxious emotional support chihuahua named Frankie.
Your kind donation means Frankie doesn’t need to get a job…yet.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, YouTube, & Facebook. Check out Movies with My Dad, a new podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies.