With longer hair and a new, greyer beard, Daniel Craig returns as private detective Benoit Blanc in Wake Up Dead Man, perhaps a touch more sombre than we’ve seen him before.

Craig continues to shine as Blanc, still holding a penchant for ironic melodrama and quirky, charming humour.

The latest entry in the Knives Out whodunnit series from Rian Johnson offers him his trickiest task yet: solving a locked door mystery. The victim is the hate-spewing and rapture-preaching priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (played excellently by Josh Brolin), murdered during the middle of a mass. The ensemble of suspects then, is his cult-like congregation. 

Craig continues to shine as Blanc, still holding a penchant for ironic melodrama and quirky, charming humour. But he also takes the character to new depths as the film offers new clues about his enigmatic past. Fans of the series will be accustomed to the fact that Blanc is never the protagonist in each film, with the focus instead on his sidekick. In this case, Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is a former boxer who has been dispatched to keep an eye on the goings on at the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude church, but quickly becomes the prime suspect of the murder. 

It is this sincere grappling with belief which has led to it being praised by a number of priests, though the depiction of Catholicism is not perfect — the story feels like it better belongs in an Evangelical church. 

Fr. Jud’s dark past is no secret, we learn that he once killed a man in the ring, but he insists that he wants the church to be a place of love and redemption, placing him at odds with Wicks and his congregation. It is no wonder that O’Connor’s star continues to rise, as his performance resists any clergyman cliché, offering us a figure with a complex and personal religious philosophy. Johnson clearly came into the film with a lot to explore about religion, but it succeeds because it is not a sermon, offering a contemplative rather than didactic take on faith. Blanc starts the film seeing religion as a ‘perfidious bubble of belief’, but Fr. Jud’s piety clearly challenges his views, not least when Jud briefly abandons the investigation to pray for a woman he’s never met. It is this sincere grappling with belief which has led to it being acclaimed by a number of priests, though the depiction of Catholicism is not perfect — the story feels like it better belongs in an Evangelical church. 

Overall, the tone of Wake Up Dead Man sits a lot closer to Knives Out, taking a step away from the slightly lighter mood and scenery of Glass Onion and returning some of the solemnity of the first entry. That is not to say the film lacks humour — like both predecessors, there is plenty of political satire, as Johnson has plenty to criticise in the era of the second Trump presidency, with religion and cult-like communities being prime targets. Johnson’s particular brand of ironic satire comes through strongest in Daryl McCormack’s character, Cy Draven. Draven is a conservative influencer and wannabe politician who broadcasts Wicks’ weekly sermons online, but whose career has not kicked off despite his attempts to exploit seemingly every possible angle of identity politics. Jeremy Renner’s character, Dr. Nat Sharpe, also provides some easily missed satire as at one point he switches is into a ramble of blustering excuse which feels heavily Trump-inspired.

The fact that it manages to add some genuine philosophical reflection on top of the entertaining mystery proves that Johnson’s series still has plenty of stamina.

Unfortunately, the ensemble is probably the weakest part of the film, with many of them feeling underdeveloped and less interesting than the suspects in the previous instalments. Andrew Scott, in particular, feels either miscast or radically underutilised in his role as a failing author who is ‘stuck in Substack hell’. The exception is the wonderful Glenn Close, who plays Martha, the church secretary and holder of all its dark secrets. She is in equal parts terrifying and hilarious as the oldest and most devout member of the congregation – both obstinately self-righteous and foolishly naïve. 

As is to be expected from the Knives Out series, the mystery offers numerous twists and turns, meaning Wake Up Dead Man is just as knotty and unpredictable as fans would have hoped. The fact that it manages to add some genuine philosophical reflection on top of the entertaining mystery proves that Johnson’s series still has plenty of stamina. While no further sequels are officially agreed, let us hope that there is plenty more Benoit Blanc yet to come.

Wake Up Dead Man is now streaming on Netflix.

Rating: 4/5

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