by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church
Intro:
… another stellar Benoit Blanc mystery, further buoyed by its heavier and darker tone and a divine performance from Josh O’Connor.
In the wake of that one space wizard movie from 2017 that some people are still fuming about, two things happened. J. J. Abrams, newfound shepherd of the IP, overcorrected to try and meet the disgruntled halfway, and came out with a sequel that was, categorically, worse. Rian Johnson, helmsman and continued scapegoat, took inspiration from the backlash and used it as fuel for what would become the seed for the highest point of his cinematic career. That seed, Knives Out, along with its budding flower Glass Onion, not only made for some of the finest films of the 21st century, but also weirdly inspiring examples of how to deal with the vitriol of the world in a constructive way.
That trend continues with the latest Benoit Blanc mystery, Wake Up Dead Man, which puts its crosshairs that had previously sniped at the American Dream and post-truth sophistry squarely on an even more controversial subject: religious faith.
The gallery of suspects that Blanc is investigating this time around is the congregation of a small church, under the guidance of Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin), as to who is behind the priest’s suspicious death. Across the expectedly-stellar ensemble, from Andrew Scott to Glenn Close to Jeremy Renner to a well-placed Kerry Washington, the archetypes being drawn from are as familiar as ever. The political opportunist, the washed-up creative, the scorned ex, the captive homemaker; all it’s missing is a screed of outrage at this murder mystery being, indeed, a mystery and it would be a complete Daily Wire casting call.
Against this congregation stands one man… and it’s not Blanc. Instead, it’s Josh O’Connor as the good Reverend Jud, recent transplant to this church and the number one suspect in Wicks’ death. While Ana de Armas and Janelle Monae in previous films certainly kept the narrative spotlight, O’Connor genuinely wrestles the film away even from Daniel Craig’s Southern-fried swagger and purple-tinged charisma.
In the face of those who engage with the idea of faith only in cynical terms, Reverand Jud’s earnest and passionate appraisal of his own beliefs is spellbinding. He’s as willing as everyone else to deliver Johnson’s sly sense of humour, but in delivering the more nuanced emotions beneath the snark, he might be the series’ greatest dramatic boon thus far.
While the film is chock-full of gnarled and knotted plotting, compelling characterisation, and Clue-tier quipping that made the first two films such a blast, it also marks a more contemplative tone than seen previously. Against the Gothic mood of the story, with its Poe-inspired macabre imagery, and simply gorgeous lighting arrangements, the film’s examination of religious faith and morality is remarkably tempered and thoughtful. It acknowledges the capacity for exploitation to seep into the foundations, and the danger of cults of personality that emphasise individuals over collective enlightenment, but it doesn’t completely write off the benefits of genuine faith either.
More so than faith in the pure religious sense, the film shows a sort of meta-faith, a faith in the faith of others, and its capacity for good, even while depicting various examples of the bad that can lead from it (right down to pointing directly at the misogyny-soaked roots of traditional Christianity). It wrestles with thorny theological questions in an appropriately weighty but honest fashion, calling out the bad actors, while still leaving the practice with a certain level of dignity and validity. It’s closer to Scorsese’s more spiritual efforts like The Last Temptation of Christ or Silence than, say, the kind of reductive pap that probably has a production credit from David A. R. White.
Wake Up Dead Man is another stellar Benoit Blanc mystery, further buoyed by its heavier and darker tone and a divine performance from Josh O’Connor. It’s as fun, exciting, and intriguing as its predecessors, and as willing to play around with whodunnit tropes, but the way it effectively and gracefully marries its expected effervescence with a stronger and more conflicted emotional core without losing its charm in the process gives it its own impressive air. Three films in and Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig are still going strong; rejoice!
