TL;DR – A visual delight, filled with actors giving stellar performances, fantastic chemistry, a riot of emotions, an intriguing mystery, and an honest exploration of motivations as old as time itself.  

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Contains a scene with flashing lights.

Wake Up Dead Man Review Introduction –

While people say that you should be impartial when writing a review, I find that, to use the words of Benoit Blanc, to be hooey. Art is subjective, and everyone will bring their own interpretations to art. Or to put it more bluntly, we all bring our own baggage along for the ride. But more than that, sometimes a film speaks to you on a fundamental personal level due to things happening in your life right at the moment you see it. Well, for me, we will be looking at just such a film today.  

So, to set the scene, we open with Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) writing a letter to the famous private detective/investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) about the Good Friday Murder. Jud was a boxer before he found Christ, and sometimes comes out swinging still. This led Bishop Langstrom (Jeffrey Wright) to send the young Catholic priest upstate to the town of Chimmy Rock and to the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Msgr. Wicks rules his congregation with an iron fist, the kind of ministry that creates zealots out of parishioners like Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), Dr Sharp (Jeremy Renner), Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) & Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church). But even in a group as tight as this, there is murder afoot, and maybe Benoit Blanc is the only one who can see through all the hooey.

Production

The first thing I wanted to talk about in this review was the production, because it was a delight. It is clear that Rian Johnson has worked with his team, including editor Bob Ducsay, composer Nathan Johnson, and cinematographer Steve Yedlin, for a long time because they are speaking the same cinematic language. This film is a visual joy from start to finish. It delights in these long, slow zooms that suck you into the narrative. Then there are the strings in the music that dance along your spine, keeping you on edge as the story unravels. Add to this stunning location work that captivates you with its world of a church in the woods, where a murder can happen in plain sight.

Where it excels is in the lighting. On just a straight production level, this is one of the best lit films that I have seen so far this year. This is a film that never looks dull; time has been taken to make sure that everything pops, even when characters are running through the woods late at night as a storm comes in. But more than this, the lighting is tied into both the fabric of the themes and the very narrative itself. You come to notice that the light is used to convey emotion and mood in a subtle way that builds until you can’t help but feel its power. You feel the ebbs and flows of characters visually, as well as emotionally, and it is profoundly captivating.

The Cast

Now, if you have watched Knives Out or Glass Onion, oh and an aside, you don’t need to have watched either to enjoy this movie, okay, where was I, oh yes. If you have watched the past films, you know they always have a stacked cast of suspects, and the third entry in the series is no different. What has always been wonderful about these films is getting to see these actors pick these broad and fascinating characters and then bring their all. Glenn Close gets to revel as the stern church helper, knowing where all the bodies and tax forms are buried. Her presence improves every scene. For the second time this year, Josh Brolin gets to dig his teeth into a meaty role that lets him preach to the nose bleeds. Andrew Scott is being weird, Kerry Washington is being deliberate in every movement, and Thomas Haden Church & Jeffrey Wright are pure delights.

But what stood out for me in this film was Josh O’Connor. Not since Ana de Armas in the first film have I found an actor in a murder/mystery film who completely inhabited their character. At every moment in this film, I believe he was a young priest who came to Christ after accidentally killing another boxer in the ring. The way Josh embodied those layers of strength, guilt, and compassion was fundamental to both the role and the movie as a whole. The way he used humour as a deflection, “young, dumb, and full of Christ”. The way he genially cared about both his parish and the people in it. His rapport with Daniel Craig is one of the authentic delights of the film, and yes, Daniel Craig is still a delight in this film, like he has been in all the others.

Religion

Now, as murder happened in a church, and the motives of most of the potential victims involve some sort of religious and faith component, you would expect the film to dive into these themes, and it does. But what I truly respected about Wake Up Dead Man was that it treated every character’s faith as genuine. Now, not in a superficially pleasant way that you would expect to see coming out of a studio that only markets to one demographic. But in a way that is honest for each of the characters. For Martha, faith is a crutch, a shield against her life. For Cy, faith is a politically opportunist way of connecting with potential voters/donors. For Simone, faith is an answer to a question she desperately needs answering. For Jud, faith is both a cure and a genuine guide. But for Benoit Blanc, faith is a fairy tale at best and a monster at most.

Wake Up Dead Man is a film that is not interested in pandering to either side of the faith divide. I mean, it is clearly versed in theological matters, such as a clear criticism of the prosperity doctrine. It also does not have time for modern liturgical practices that “shrink and calcify”. But, at its core, it accepts Benoit Blanc’s Atheism as a driver of his life, the same way that the film accepts that Jud’s faith is a very real and genuine one. The way the film explores religious faith, warts and all, in an honest and engaging way was a breath of fresh air that you don’t usually see come out of the risk-averse studio system.       

Structure

From a structural perspective, this film dabbles in similar themes and structures that were a hallmark of both Knives Out and Glass Onion. If anything, I would say they are a touch more reserved this time around, as you can see with the film opening with Jud, not Benoit. But it works with the context that they are playing with. The dance through the murder mystery genre with the same deft touch that we saw with the other films and Poker Face. There are times when you think things might be running a touch long. But every time I had that thought, the movie chose that exact moment to tip everything on its head, almost as if it was reading my mind. It is also a profoundly funny film, ranging from simple observations to real dark comedic moments, and they all kind of worked. There is potential that the ending might be a touch on the nose for some people, but for me, they landed it perfectly.

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Wake Up Dead Man? Absolutely. If you can, I would recommend giving it a watch during its limited theatrical run if it is opening near you. If not, absolutely give this a watch when it releases on Netflix later in the year.

Have you watched Wake Up Dead Man? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Wake Up Dead Man, we would recommend Deadloch to you because it too revels in the oddness of its characters in a remote location, but is founded on the realities of the moral choices being made.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Wake Up Dead Man
Directed by – Rian Johnson
Written by – Rian Johnson
Based on – Knives Out by Rian Johnson
Music by – Nathan Johnson
Cinematography by – Steve Yedlin
Edited by – Bob Ducsay
Production/Distribution Companies – T-Street Productions, Ram Bergman Productions & Netflix
Starring – Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Wright, Annie Hamilton, James Faulkner, Bridget Everett, Noah Segan & Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13