The weight of expectation rests more heavily on Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out Mystery, and while it doesn’t try to reinvent the whodunit genre like the previous two films, the clever script and all-star cast still make this a riveting watch.

Premise: When fire-and-brimstone priest Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) is found stabbed in a sealed vestibule during his Good Friday service, it appears to be an impossible crime. Suspicion falls on Wicks’ congregation, including the young boxer-turned-priest Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) who recently joined the parish as Wicks’ assistant pastor, leading local Police Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to call in renowned private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to assist with the investigation.

Review:

It’s not really an exaggeration to say that Rian Johnson’s first two Benoit Blanc mysteries helped to redefine the whodunit genre for modern audiences: without getting into spoilers for those who haven’t seen them yet, Knives Out followed events from the perspective of the sympathetic perpetrator for a large put of the movie, putting Benoit Blanc’s detective in the unusual position of being the movie’s antagonist, while Glass Onion looped back on its own story at the halfway point to reshow events in an entirely new light. In comparison, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a much more traditional whodunit mystery, where the detective is called in to solve an “impossible” murder that has the local police stumped.

In this case, the “impossible” crime is Rian Johnson’s spin on a classic “locked room murder”, a staple of the crime mystery genre. The victim, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (played with bile and vigour by Josh Brolin), dominated the rural town community with his provocative sermons, meaning that any one of his congregation may have had a motive to want him dead – although with the murder happening in plain sight during his Good Friday service, it appears impossible for any of them to be the culprit, forcing local Police Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to turn to private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) for assistance.

“…Rian Johnson has once again put together an amazingly talented cast of A-listers…”

The police’s main suspect is Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), the new-to-town outsider who had a violent past before he joined the church – but Blanc soon assesses that Father Jud may be the only person he can trust. This allows Josh O’Connor to adopt the ‘sidekick’ role to Daniel Craig’s detective, which is a format that has worked really well in this trilogy of mysteries. The relationship between Benoit Blanc and Father Jud is particularly interesting, as Rian Johnson explores questions of faith and religion observed through the eyes of rational atheist Benoit Blanc, who sees that someone like Monsignor Wicks may represent the worst of organised religion, while someone like Father Jud is able to show Blanc the compassion and comfort that faith can provide in difficult times. One scene in particular with Father Jud is initially played for laughs before taking a surprisingly emotional turn.

The church’s congregation form the list of likely suspects, and Rian Johnson has once again put together an amazingly talented cast of A-listers. In no particular order (working from left to right on the poster, to avoid any potential spoilers) we have: Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, a lawyer who’s feeling trapped in her father’s local practice; Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, a previously best-selling author now struggling with his next book; Jeremy Renner as Nat Sharp, the town’s doctor whose wife has just left him; Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix, the church caretaker and Wicks’ right hand woman; Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven, an aspiring social-media-savvy politician; Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane, a former concert cellist now struggling with a health condition; and Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt, the church’s groundskeeper and Martha Delacroix’s partner.

“…very well written with an engaging central mystery…”

Anyone who felt that Knives Out or Glass Onion were “too clever” or too convoluted will be pleased to hear that Wake Up Dead Man is a more traditional whodunit – still very well written with an engaging central mystery, but nothing as self-indulgent as the revelations in the first two movies (which turned everything we thought we knew upside down). I think that, for that reason, a lot of viewers have found Wake Up Dead Man to be their favourite Benoit Blanc mystery so far … but for me, it was missing just a little something compared to the first two movies, and I have to confess, I did see one of the main revelations coming.

That said, Wake Up Dead Man is still a cut above the rest of the whodunit pack – an inventive mystery performed by a top notch cast, in an intriguing setting. One of the strengths of this series is that each film has its own identity, with Wake Up Dead Man adopting a more serious tone than the knockabout humour in Glass Onion, for example, while the religious themes in this film give it a more grounded tone compared to the wealthy and famous suspects who were the focus of the earlier films.

“…presents a timeless murder mystery in a way that feels utterly contemporaneous…”

Touching on everything from the weaponisation of religion in politics to the manufactured culture wars amplified on social media, Wake Up Dead Man manages to present a timeless murder mystery in a way that feels utterly contemporaneous, while Josh O’Connor is more than up to the task of stepping into the shoes of Ana de Armas and Janelle Monáe as the de facto lead of this Benoit Blanc movie. The series shows no signs of running out of steam – and I very much hope that Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig reunite for another Benoit Blanc mystery a few years from now.