Mystery solved: ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ was my best stream this week
Mystery solved: ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ was my best stream this week
The movie brought back the magic of the first ‘Knives Out’ movie for me, even if it struggled with some of the same issues each film in the franchise has.
I’ll admit, while I very much enjoy a good mystery title when one becomes available, it’s far from the first genre I’ll seek out. I often find myself impatient to learn how things end, and if I were a devotee of mystery novels, I suspect I’d be the type to skip to the final page of the story before reading the book first.
But when the first “Knives Out movie was released in 2019, I couldn’t stay away. The movie’s ensemble cast drew me to it, and the intricate plot combined with the fantastic performances — particularly of Daniel Craig as private investigator Benoit Blanc — kept me intrigued as the movie became a franchise for its streaming service Netflix.
I can’t say that the second movie in the series quite hit the same level for me. I still enjoyed “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” but not on par with the first film. I thought it failed to make use of its extensive cast to a more unfortunate degree than the first movie. With that in mind, I approached the third movie in the franchise “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” with a bit more trepidation.
I’m happy to report that my caution in watching the film was unnecessary. “Wake Up Dead Man” was my favorite mystery movie experience since the first “Knives Out” movie, and while I still thought it failed at times to make use of its entire cast, I enjoyed it much more than I did the second movie in the series.
I won’t do too much to spoil the plot of “Wake Up Dead Man,” past saying that I never saw the ending coming. That may not mean much to mystery aficionados who pride themselves on being to suss out the ending before it happens, but I think there is an appropriate number of twists and turns in the movie to keep even seasoned consumers of the genre guessing until the end.
“Wake Up Dead Man” sees Benoit Blanc called to a small church in upstate New York. An eager young priest is suspected of the murder of the monsignor at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, and the whole town soon unites against him. But Blanc isn’t so sure he’s the one responsible, and it’s up to him to prove that the father deserves the faith of his flock.
To be sure, there are still weaknesses to the way the film deploys its cast. Although I was thrilled to see Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott in the film, I felt they weren’t given nearly enough to do by the script to account for their presence. Jeremy Renner’s Dr. Nat Sharp is a key character in the film, but I thought his character could have used a little more development, given how important he becomes to the plot.
But Craig is fantastic as Blanc once again, and is especially great when sharing scenes with Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud Duplenticy. Josh Brolin and Glenn Close don’t disappoint either, and all in all, I think anyone who gathers around their TV set to enjoy “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” on Netflix this holiday season is in for an excellent time.
Netflix
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