Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which is the actual full title, is the third installment of the Knives Out franchise following Knives Out and Glass Onion. Rian Johnson has found a groove with his quirky detective Benoit Blanc played beautifully by Daniel Craig and this third installment feels like the most elaborate one yet, with Johnson levelling up in every way.
The general premise of the movie is that a death occurs in a small town church with the flock of the monseigneur being the main suspects. I won’t say too much about the plot in this review because of course in a murder mystery, that’s the main point, but there’s plenty more to discuss!
Point 1: Backseat Benoit
As with every entry in this franchise, the cast is stellar. In the past two movies though, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc was inarguably the principal protagonist, as we followed his quirky detective gather the details of the story. Whether it was a conscious decision to not have Blanc’s peculiar personality overstay its welcome or not, it was a breath of fresh air albeit a bit jarring to not have him show up until the second act of the film. And even when he does make his entrance, Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud continues to carry the narrative as the lead.
It’s to Rian Johnson’s credit that despite pushing Daniel Craig to the bench, Wake Up Dead Man does not stray far enough from the Knives Out established vibe to feel unfamiliar. It challenges your preconceived notions going in, but very much settles into a classic whodunnit once the second act hits. Fortunately, Josh O’Connor shines in his role to ensure that audiences looking forward to Benoit Blanc from the beginning are not disappointed, but rather will find it hard to not lean in to find out where things are going. This is only the second film I see him in after Challengers but he has an impish charm that is subtly magnetic and has incited me to seek out more of his work.
The rest of the cast has uneven screentime with varying levels of performances. Here’s my ranking of every performance in the movie and a little note about each of them.
| Josh O’Connor | Carries the movie and gives a great performance with range, organic humour, and a sympathetic portrayal. |
| Daniel Craig | Although he is just doing more Benoit Blanc here, the performance remains impressive with every delivery feeling like a performance. Some great lines and moments, especially when interacting with the religious setting. |
| Josh Brolin | He just looks like he’s having so much fun with the role of a vile, radicalizing priest who only cares for himself. By far the loudest performance in the movie, but he makes it feel realistic, especially given the state of the world. |
| Glenn Close | Not that I’ve ever seen Glenn Close give a bad performance, but she is excellent here. She eats up the part of the devout church worker who is blindly loyal to Josh Brolin’s Monseigneur Wicks, but leans into the judgmental older lady in a small town role with just the right levels of contempt and sadness. |
| Andrew Scott | Easily slips on the glove of a self-important, has-been author trying to take advantage of radical right-wing ideas to regain popularity. He has a few moments that pop. |
| Daryl McCormack | What starts as a seemingly joke character becomes more than that in Cy Draven, a failed politician who now films everything in the hopes of creating right-wing content to get popular. A clear caricature of innumerable online right-wing personalities that McCormack plays into well and has a couple of moments of nuanced dissection as well. |
| Kerry Washington | Good performance for the role she has been given, but I’m not sure anyone told her that the movie is also comedic. In the end, it’s a pretty one note character that she doesn’t give much more to than what’s required. |
| Cailee Spaeny | An interesting backstory that would have been interesting to explore, but there wasn’t the time in a movie to really delve into it. She does a good job with the role, but I would have loved to see a lot more of her playing this character. |
| Jeremy Renner | Although his character has a couple of moments in the film, he slips in and out. In many ways, he feels a little too goofy for this movie, which is saying something given the general tone of the franchise, but he just didn’t seem to gel for me. |
| Thomas Haden Church | He was in the movie. |
| Mila Kunis | She was also in this movie. |
Point 2: Gothic Horror Vibes
Half the fun of franchises like this is the different tones and settings you can explore with each entry. The easiest reference point for a similar franchise would be the Hercule Poirot series with Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice. Similarly, after a cozy cabin debut for this franchise followed up by an opulent billionaire island locale, the third entry shifts to a small town with a church led by a divisive radical right-wing message-spewing leader.
More than that, the film really steeps itself in the gothic backdrop of an old church in rural USA while also poking fun at the idea of this even being considered gothic, “This place has more in common with Disneyland,” says one character when discussing the age and history, or lack thereof, of said church. That said, frequent Rian Johnson collaborator cinematographer Steve Yedlin takes advantage of what is a beautiful church with very precise choices that really pop on camera.
The visuals of the final act really drive home the great opportunity this setting provides Johnson. The blocking and lighting choices throughout the film are immaculate and do not ever disappoint.
Point 3: Slowing It Down
One potential critique I had and I suspect many might have is the pacing. Wake Up Dead Man clocks in at 140 minutes, which is in line with the previous two entries. However, as mentioned earlier, Benoit Blanc does not show up until the second act. Due to this and the changeup in the narrative formula, it can make that first act feel quite slow.
The second act whizzes by though as the clues come at you hard and fast, which helps attenuate the slowness of the first act. The true justification for the slow first act though is in the third act. This final third really takes a grandiose turn as the answers of the mystery are revealed and we are brought on a twisty path to the conclusion. However, if it were not for that somewhat laborious placing of the pieces in the first act, it would feel unearned.
Perhaps there was a quicker way to get through that part of the film and still achieve what Rian Johnson was going for, but by the time the film ended, I did not feel like the movie really wasted much time with any of its aspects and all of it felt justified. So, that’s me telling you that despite feeling slow at first, the film does Wake Up (heh) later on and leverages that work into a very satisfying conclusion.
Point 4: Whodunnit Best?
A question everyone always has when there’s a third entry into a franchise is how does it compare to the previous ones. So here are my thoughts on where this stands among the three.
If you just want the tightest story, the first Knives Out is hard to beat in this genre. That film let you really learn about every character in the story and go through what was a more straightforward narrative. Glass Onion to me is a shinier version of that with set pieces being a bigger focus while leaning into the fun aspect at the expense of a slightly weaker mystery.
My opinion is Wake Up Dead Man overall is the best entry into the franchise. It has the most elaborate mystery with some great visuals and setting. It does however fall short a little on fully utilizing the cast by focusing on a few much more than others, a pitfall the previous two entries avoided. The performances and the narrative are strong enough to carry this film alone, but I think the aforementioned elements really level it up. The strong political nature of the movie might alienate some, but it would be disingenuous to act like this is the first instance of this, as the previous two entries have covered similar ground.
In the end, I’m comfortable saying that if you like the previous Knives Out movies, you will definitely like this one as well. However, this could also be an entry point for those who may have liked the others less. Some may prefer the first to this one, but I think this one just trumps it. But hey, maybe you’re one of the few who likes the second one more! That’s the fun part with these types of movies – the different settings and vibes and mysteries make it so that different elements will appeal to different people. I am curious to see where the general audience falls on this one.
