‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review: Benoit Blanc is still the world’s best detective
The third film in the Knives Out series remains witty and fun with a new ensemble cast of stars to give Daniel Craig and Rian Johnson plenty to work with in Benoit Blanc’s latest murder mystery case.
About 25 minutes into the film, you’ll probably think ‘where the hell is Daniel Craig?’ That’s because Benoit Blanc doesn’t appear on screen for much of the first act.
We begin much like the other two films in the series - with Blanc receiving a letter asking for his assistance in solving a murder. Only this time, Blanc doesn’t receive a letter at all. We find out that Blanc actually asks one of the suspects to tell the story of the murder of Monseigneur Wicks, the indignant and controlling head pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a fitting name given how Monseigneur Wicks treats newcomers to the church.
Where Wake Up Dead Man excels where other murder mysteries fail is the freedom Rian Johnson gives his cast. Through three films, it’s apparent that Johnson has a lot of trust in the actors to deliver his script in a way that feels true to the tone of the previous two films, and to the audience who thinks they can get ahead of the crime put on screen.
Josh Brolin delivers a passionate performance Monseigneur Wicks. Brolin taps into the anger of his character so well that you can’t help but feel intimidated by him despite him being a calculated, vengeful drunk.
Where Wake Up Dead Man stumbles is the mystery itself. Early after Benoit Blanc is introduced into the film, he states that all of the pieces are on the board, now you just have to put them together. By the time the credits roll, you can’t help but feel like you only had 20% of the pieces to this puzzle when Benoit Blanc made that statement.
Of course, this can be attributed to the ‘game of chess’ that it feels like Blanc, and by extension, director Rian Johnson is playing with the audience. If Benoit Blanc is always one step ahead, and the audience doesn’t have all of the facts, then there’s no mystery for me to work out, which is half the fun.
Wake Up Dead Man focuses more on the how the murder was committed than the why or the who. Compared to the previous films, where the how is figured out by the end of act two, Wake Up Dead Man decides that looking for more evidence and clues is more important than the character interactions that make this series so magnetic.
The third instalment in the Knives Out series isn’t its sharpest, but Benoit Blanc still hasn’t been pwned, despite what any naysayers may have you believe.
3/5