The most powerful moment in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery isn’t a murder or a big reveal. It’s a phone call.
Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is trying to help solve the murder of the controversial head priest of his small-town parish, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Standing in the rectory with private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), Jud calls a records office to request information related to the case. The clerk, Louise (Bridget Everett), is overly chatty, much to Father Jud’s annoyance. It seems like she’ll never shut up. But it turns out she, too, has a request. After a few minutes, Louise stops talking to ask, “Father, would you pray for me?”
The expression on Father Jud’s face drops, and he leaves the room to continue his conversation with Louise privately, much to Blanc’s surprise (and the audience’s). Father Jud patiently listens to Louise talk about her sick mother and their strained relationship, with no trace of impatience. Later, Louise calls Father Jud back at an inopportune moment. He doesn’t tell her to call back later or ask about his earlier records inquiry (though that is why she’s called him). Instead, he asks, “How’s your mom?”
Wake Up Dead Man, the third film in writer-director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series of murder mysteries starring Craig’s Benoit Blanc, is deeply concerned with the church’s stated mission of serving others the way Christ served us. In the film’s view, that mission has been hijacked by people like the film’s murder victim, the Christian nationalist priest Wicks, whose hateful sermons are slowly poisoning his dwindling flock, to Father Jud’s growing frustration.
Father Jud’s phone call with Louise, by contrast, displays the kind of nonjudgmental care and attention that religious philosopher Simone Weil once called “the rarest and purest form of generosity.” In conversation with Sojourners, Johnson calls that scene “the heart of the movie.” It’s inspired directly from conversations he had with Catholic priests in preparation for the film.
“They told me that when they go to the grocery store, they’re wearing a clerical collar, and someone always comes up and starts sobbing because they need help, or screaming at them in anger,” Johnson says. “The notion that they’re in service at every moment was really striking to me.”
The previous two films in Johnson’s series, 2019’s Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion, used witty, twisty murder mystery trappings to address issues of immigration, class divides, and corruption among the super-rich. This time, Blanc comes to the aid of Father Jud, a young priest who’s struggling to lead the parish in the aftermath of the controlling Wicks’ mysterious death during a Good Friday service.
After enduring years of Wicks’ vitriol, the congregation of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is down to a handful of regulars. They include an unfulfilled lawyer (Kerry Washington) and her adopted son (Darryl McCormack), a frustrated novelist (Andrew Scott), a bitter divorced father (Jeremy Renner) and a chronically ill cellist (Cailee Spaeny) who had hoped Wicks could heal her. Like The Night of the Hunter’s Harry Powell, Wicks had exploited each of these people for his own gain, often aided by Martha (Glenn Close), the church secretary who’s been around since Wicks’ grandfather ran things. When Wicks is killed, it’s clear everyone had something to gain from the priest’s death—including Father Jud.
Johnson’s interest in mysteries as a vehicle for examining social issues comes, he says, from the greatest examples of the genre itself.
“Most of the film versions of mysteries I saw growing up were period pieces, Agatha Christie stories kind of set in this timeless bubble. But Christie was always writing for her present moment,” Johnson tells Sojourners. “There’s all these suspects, with a power hierarchy within the group. You’re creating a microcosm of society, and that’s a powerful tool to talk about what’s on all of our minds these days. That’s the goal of these movies.”
To that end, Johnson—who grew up evangelical but drifted away from faith later in adulthood—says Wake Up Dead Man is his most personal film yet.
“Anyone who’s had faith in their life and isn’t a believer anymore, it’s still a bedrock that forms everything. You’re wrestling with it throughout the course of your life,” he says.
Johnson’s religious background is all over Wake Up Dead Man, with its clergy protagonist, Holy Week setting, literal whitewashed tombs, and themes of spiritual abuse and healing. His past movies have included subtle religious nods, whether it’s a needle drop from Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman in Knives Out or a deconstruction-flavored subplot in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This time, Johnson says, he wanted to directly address the ideas that had long been swirling around in his head.
READ MORE: Knives Out Offers a Merciless Skewering of White Privilege
“My other movies have been obliquely about faith,” he says. “With this, I wanted to make it more grounded and come at it straight, and see if I can have a multifaceted discussion with myself.”
That discussion—between the mystery of faith, the value of logic, and a world that allows room for both—is what powers the relationship between Blanc and Jud. By the end of the film, Blanc, a cynic, learns the value of mercy. Father Jud, a believer, learns how to better care for the needs of his flock.
“All of these movies are defined by Blanc’s relationship to the protagonist,” Johnson says. “Here, the relationship goes back and forth over the course of the story, but they both learn something from each other.”
However, that relationship doesn’t result in conversion. No one’s beliefs change. Rather, Wake Up Dead Man tells a story about two people with different perspectives who respect each other, even if they don’t always agree.
Johnson says he sees that mutual respect as a more valuable takeaway, especially in culturally divided times.
“I think it would’ve felt dishonest if Blanc was converted by the end,” Johnson says. “For me, more importantly, these characters have formed a love for each other, but are still on opposite sides of the fence. I think that’s especially important right now.”
“Anyone who’s had faith in their life and isn’t a believer anymore, it’s still a bedrock that forms everything. You’re wrestling with it throughout the course of your life.” —Rian Johnson
Abby Olcese is a freelance film critic and writer based in Missouri. You can find her on Twitter @abbyolcese.
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