\n<\/p>\n
\n\tImagine a literary mash-up of G.K. Chesterton\u2019s Father Brown<\/em> amateur detective stories and John Dickson Carr\u2019s locked-room mystery The Hollow Man<\/em>, together with what appears to be a sly takedown of a current political leader whose power comes from preaching anger and fear. The result is Wake Up Dead Man<\/em>, the third entry in Rian Johnson\u2019s Knives Out<\/em> murder mystery series. The new film promises a return from the exhausting Greek Island excesses of Glass Onion<\/em> to the more compact pleasures of the first movie, swapping the country house for a small Catholic church and rectory in upstate New York.<\/p>\n \n\tBut appearances can be deceptive, as any good sleuth knows, and this puzzler with neo-Gothic trappings, while it gets off to a promising, very funny start, becomes too clever and convoluted for its own good. That becomes apparent almost as soon as the investigation gets underway and the movie starts losing its fizz. What it does have, however, is the considerable plus of Josh O\u2019Connor as a former boxer turned priest who becomes both a murder suspect and a Watson to Benoit Blanc\u2019s Sherlock Holmes.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tWake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/span> \tThe knives need sharpening. \t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue<\/strong>: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations) \n\tBlanc, of course, is the suave Southern gent with the stylish suits and exaggerated drawl played by Daniel Craig with wit, panache and flashes of mischief. Benoit and O\u2019Connor\u2019s Father Jud Duplenticy make a delightful pair, the two British actors sparking off each other with infectious enjoyment.<\/p>\n \n\tPerhaps because the case causes him to question his previously unshakeable belief in rationality, Blanc all but cedes the spotlight throughout much of the intrigue. But he grabs it back in the wrap-up, with a hilarious Phantom of the Opera<\/em> gag and an actual elevated pulpit from which this loquacious peacock delivers his denouement. He even gets bathed in a shaft of heavenly light at one point.<\/p>\n \n\tFather Jud ends up at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude as a disciplinary measure after he breaks the jaw of an \u201casshole deacon\u201d whom no one likes anyway. He will be assistant priest in a small parish under Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). But before he gets too excited, a senior church official who has gotten him out of trouble before (played with deliciously dry humor by an in-demand actor in an unbilled cameo) warns the young priest that the Monsignor is known to be \u201ca few beads short of a full rosary.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat proves an understatement when Father Jud \u2014 \u201cyoung, dumb and full of Christ,\u201d to use his own words \u2014 gets his first taste of Monsignor Wicks\u2019 scary intensity. Even more so when he hears the older clergyman\u2019s eyebrow-raising confession.<\/p>\n \n\tNo less odd is Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), a devout believer who does everything from keeping the books and filing away documents to playing the organ at Mass and laundering the Monsignor\u2019s vestments. One of the standouts, along with Brolin, of the starry ensemble, Close\u2019s entrance alone is priceless.<\/p>\n \n\tThe new arrival also meets the church\u2019s flock, which includes town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner); successful attorney Vera Draven (Kerry Washington); Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), a bestselling author whose stock has plummeted; accomplished cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), whose career ended when a chronic nerve condition put her in a wheelchair; Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), a failed politician and the alleged half-brother of Vera, always armed with a small camera and mic to capture YouTube content; and longtime groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), who has something going on with Martha.<\/p>\n \n\tA little later they are joined by local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), who\u2019s somewhat skeptical about the way Blanc conducts an investigation but gives him her full support regardless.<\/p>\n \n\tGranted there\u2019s pleasure in watching such magnetic actors bite into colorful character parts. But unlike Close and Brolin, both in fine form, the rest are given too little to do. Every one of those roles could have been played by any number of capable actors. (Though it\u2019s fascinating how precisely McCormack seems to be channeling a young Jeff Goldblum.) It almost seems like Johnson is in competition with Wes Anderson to recruit the starriest ensemble, though he needs to make better use of them.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Father Jud starts assisting at Mass, he bristles at how markedly different Monsignor Wicks\u2019 views on spreading God\u2019s love seem from his own. In his fiery homilies, the Monsignor seems to target one new congregation member per week, pushing for the victory of a walkout. Not one to avoid confrontations, Father Jud questions him on his methods and the Monsignor scoffs that the push for kindness and goodness has failed, and only by instilling fear and anger can they protect their sacred institution.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile Johnson\u2019s previous two Knives Out<\/em> movies took digs at wealth inequality and class warfare, their commentary on political hypocrisy was more subtle. Here, he takes aim directly at strongmen leaders who coopt religion as a means for spreading hate and consolidating power.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Father Jud organizes a prayer meeting in the rectory, the regulars are dismayed to learn that not only is the Monsignor not coming but he hasn\u2019t even been informed that it\u2019s happening. This scandalizes the loyal parishioners, most of all Martha, who wastes no time texting the boss and putting the Monsignor on the warpath.<\/p>\n \n\tA murder happens virtually right under everyone\u2019s noses, and the group is quick to point fingers at Father Jud as the likeliest suspect, despite zero evidence. But Benoit Blanc, who appears mysteriously, isn\u2019t so easily convinced the young priest is the perpetrator of what he sees as an impossible crime.<\/p>\n \n\tAs befits the setting of an old stone house of worship with a shadowy churchyard, theological themes surface concerning everything from faith to resurrection to desecration to the nature of miracles. There\u2019s also much talk of Eve\u2019s sin in the garden of Eden. All this adds shadings especially to O\u2019Connor\u2019s character, since Father Jud believes discovering Christianity saved his life. But the overlong movie loses momentum despite the fun that Craig and O\u2019Connor have as the two men develop a relaxed rapport while digging for clues.<\/p>\n \n\tAs always, Johnson delivers a great-looking movie, with sharp work from cinematographer Steve Yedlin, richly detailed production design by Rick Hendrichs and character-enhancing costumes by Jenny Eagan.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile the film is uneven and doesn\u2019t serve the deluxe cast equally, as a vehicle for O\u2019Connor it\u2019s revelatory. The actor has been on an incredible roll this year, with Max Walker-Silverman\u2019s quietly wrenching cowboy portrait Rebuilding<\/em> at Sundance, followed in Cannes by Kelly Reichardt\u2019s funny-sad art heist movie The Mastermind <\/em>and Oliver Hermanus\u2019 early 20th century queer love story, The History of Sound<\/em>. At this point it seems safe to say he\u2019s one of our most versatile and reliably excellent actors and I\u2019d see him in anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine a literary mash-up of G.K. Chesterton\u2019s Father Brown amateur detective stories and John Dickson Carr\u2019s locked-room mystery The Hollow Man, together with what appears to be a sly takedown of a current political leader whose power comes from preaching anger and fear. The result is Wake Up Dead Man, the third entry in Rian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[12056,12057,1596,12055,1541,1956,1085,8667],"class_list":{"0":"post-19652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-benoit","9":"tag-blanc","10":"tag-dead","11":"tag-knives","12":"tag-man","13":"tag-mystery","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-wake"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Release date<\/strong>: Wednesday, Nov. 26 (theaters), Friday, Dec. 12 (streaming)
Cast<\/strong>: Daniel Craig, Josh O\u2019Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church
Director-screenwriter<\/strong>: Rian Johnson
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2 hours 24 minutes\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n