Wake Up Dead Man–A Holier-Than-Thou Mystery

Wake Up Dead Man takes place in Chimney Rock, a small town in upstate New York, where a newly ordained  Catholic priest named Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) has been assigned to work under Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin).  An aging, hateful right-wing cleric,  Wicks  has nothing but  contempt for gay people, single moms and the entire hell-bound secular world outside his small, ever-shrinking congregation.  His sermons spew so much hate that curious new church attendees walk out.

Faithful to the Agatha Christie genre of the  “locked-room impossible murder”,  Wake Up Dead Man introduces a local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) who pleads with the inspector extraordinaire, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), to solve a murder in the sanctuary of the church.  The murder occurs on Good Friday.

“All I want is to be a good priest and to bring forgiveness to the broken people in the world.” Jud insists, but Monsignor Wicks’ flock has little patience or tolerance for the rookie priest.  The townspeople of Chimney Rock  believe, without a doubt,  that Jud is the murderer.

But in his inimitable contrarian style, Blanc believes Jud and enlists him to help solve the murder and establish his innocence. This won’t be easy, especially since Jud killed a man in the boxing ring years before his ordination. 

Martha (Glenn Close), who manages the church’s daily administrative tasks,  has a dark and sinister past.  Having lived at the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude since she was nine years old, Martha vehemently dismisses any disruption to her routine, particularly by the fresh-faced newcomer, who she abhors.

Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), a highly professional and duty-bound attorney, has been the foster mother of  Cy (Daryl McCormack) for almost twenty years, believing him to be her father’s illegitimate son.  Cy is an Internet influencer and wannabe Republican politician intent on making Monsignor Wicks an internet sensation.  Dr. Nat (Jeremy Renner), an alcoholic with little allegiance to the Hippocratic Oath, is eager to be more successful in town.  And this is just a short list of the other “broken” characters and their backstories, including a formerly progressive bestselling author now trying to reclaim his readers’ interest, a young cellist who has become disabled, and a groundskeeper who witnesses everything. 

The secular power of greed clashes with the otherworldly nature of Christian faith.  How can religion be abused by people in powerful positions, who use fear and anger to repress others? Just as the first two “Knives Out” movies skewered racism, classism, and tech billionaires, Wake Up Dead Man tackles the weaponization of religion and its sometime partner, greed.

Wake Up Dead Man has some beautifully crafted dialog between Jud, the earnest Christian believer, and Blanc, the fiercely rational atheist.  While dissecting  the intolerance  and exclusionary practice of  Christian evangelicalism, Blanc in the end leaves the question of faith open.  

As the third installment in the “Knives Out” movie series, Wake Up Dead Man  is the darkest but still retains some of its humor, largely due to the standout performances of Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor. With a cast loaded with A-lister stars and a never-disappointing Glenn Close, the mystery is worth watching but there are some glaring plot holes:  how Blanc can show up at the right time in the right scene without any prior clues or  how Martha, Nat and Samson interact with each other to deepen the plot.

While Wake Up Dead Man is not a tightly structured mystery with carefully designed clues and red herrings, it is an entertaining–not first-rate– contribution to the “Knights Out” trilogy.

Availability:  Netflix