Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise just got a new addition in Wake Up Dead Man, which was released on Netflix on the 12th this December and Daniel Craig makes a return as Benoit Blanc alongside a new cast, including Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, and Cailee Spaeny.
Absolutely star-packed and an installment in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man had big shoes to fill. Which it did, and more.
The cinematography was amazing as always, Benoit was himself and had great chemistry with the other characters, and Josh O’Connor as a priest? Literal perfection. Having a priest like that would heal anybody, me included. The themes the movie handled were serious, but it did so in such a perfect way that you really couldn’t criticise it.
And unlike the last two films, this Knives Out movie isn’t interested in being clever or funny. It wants to be taken seriously.
So let’s dive in. Warning: spoilers ahead.
Faith And Murder
The plot of Wake Up Dead Man is simple. The story follows the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the authoritarian main priest in charge of the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude church. He is a spiteful man who was born to a “Harlot Whore™” and who rules his small congregation through fear and shame. When he is killed in a mass on Good Friday, everybody accuses Jud (Josh O’ Connor), the new priest sent to the parish.
But the focus of the movie is not just the murder, it’s faith. Faith in God, the church, people, and how this faith can be let down. Every character believes in something, whether it’s Benoit Blanc, who believes in logic; Vera, the lawyer who believes in her father’s plan for her life; Simone, who has enough faith that her chronic pain will stop if she sticks with Wicks; and Martha, who believes in the church with all her heart.
Some people in power recognise this faith and use it for their own gain, manipulating it, as the Monsignor did by extorting money from Simone. Jud isn’t one of those people, however. All he wants to do is bring people to God and show them His kindness, which is why he and Wicks are opposites.
Jud is the perfect foil to Monsignor Wicks, who stands for nothing but fear and hate, and the perfect complement to Benoit, who, despite his atheism, still understands that people should believe what they choose to and draw comfort from it. Throughout the entire movie, we see Jud stand firm in his faith. Even though he struggles with being the right type of Priest for the church, and finding out who killed Wicks, he is first a priest who believes in helping people before he is a suspect in a murder mystery, something he reminds Benoit of very often. The best way to describe this would be the phone call scene where he interrupts a break in the case by praying with a woman who is scared of her mother’s death for hours, while Benoit waits outside.
The Poor Girls Of Perpetual Fortitude
Another very important theme the movie is built upon is misogyny. In Benoit’s first monologue, he says that the church is built on misogyny and homophobia. Jud doesn’t disagree because he knows it’s true. Even the name of the parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, is reflective of that. The women in this movie are defined by endurance, suffering, and silence just so that some men can live easier lives.
Grace. Martha. Vera. Simone.
“The poor girls.”
(Except Dr Nat’s wife, she knew what was up and left him before she could become a woman of fortitude.)
Grace, the first woman of perpetual fortitude we meet, is introduced to us as “The Harlot Whore™” who gave birth to the Monsignor out of wedlock. Wicks and Martha (the ultimate pick-me, if you ask me) waste no time in painting her as the villain to Jud when he asks about her.. She was evil, she was a whore who had a child outside marriage, she desecrated the church, and she was a gold-digging, bad mother who only wanted the inheritance. When in reality, she was stuck in that small-minded, bigoted town, surrounded by people who hated her and an abusive father, and all she wanted was to get out.
As for Martha, even though she was the pickiest pick-me that ever existed, she was also a lady of perpetual fortitude. She lived and breathed for that church. Even though you could look at her obsession as weird, Martha had always been dedicated to the church, going so far as to keep a family secret till she was ancient. She kept the Wicks family secrets, she did the books, did the cleaning, kept the church running for decades straight, and never complained. All she wanted was a true priest, and Wicks couldn’t even do that.
Vera Draven didn’t want to be a lawyer. She didn’t want to take care of an asshole child who wasn’t hers. She didn’t want to put her life on hold. But she did so for her father. She worked in the firm because he wanted it, and she took care of Cy and raised him because he told her to. Only to find out that Cy was Wicks’ son, and her father practically signed her up for a lifetime of taking care of him because he and Wicks were drinking buddies. Meanwhile, Wicks knew all this, and he still kept preaching damnation on the people who had children outside marriage, and when Vera confronted him, he blamed Cy’s mom because she was a “Harlot Whore™” who tempted him for a night of sin.
Simone was always in pain. She gave up the thing she loved the most, playing the cello, because she couldn’t do it anymore. She sought help from all the doctors, spent so much money on treatments, never finding a cure, only to find fake solace with Wicks. Wicks knew her burdens and struggles and still went on extorting her for her money, only to turn around and tell her, “You can’t buy divine healing.”
These women had one thing in common: they kept bearing all the unfair things they had to endure. And what did they get for it? Grace was called the “Harlot Whore” for decades after her death. Decades!. When you factor in the fact that Benoit referred to her father as Wicks’ father, it makes you feel even more sorry for her, because imagine what it would feel like to be stuck in a town with your priest father who raped you and the child you had. There’s Simone, who gets used as an ATM again by the church. And Vera — imagine giving up a promising life ahead of you to stay back and raise an ungrateful child. She threw her life away to focus on Cy, and what did she get?
Nothing. Cy and Wicks hit it off like Wicks didn’t abandon him all his life.
Key Takeaway
Wake Up Dead Man does achieve what it set out to do: Be serious. Glass Onion tackled the eat-the-rich discourse, Knives Out touched on immigration, and Wake Up Dead Man handles faith and misogyny. It recognises that some Christian systems are deeply flawed, and while there are people like Jud who want to make things better, there are still a lot of fearmongers who use the church as a means of control.
The cinematography is amazing, though a bit dark and gloomy, and it fits the message perfectly. That scene where Benoit explains why he can’t believe in God is one of the most beautiful shots in the film, as the lighting is dark, then brightens when Jud explains why he himself believes. Even the scene where Grace desecrates the church in search of the money is perfectly done, showing us how Martha viewed Grace as some sort of demon-possessed woman, when all she was doing was looking for her last lifeline.
All in all, Wake Up Dead Man was, in my opinion, the most solid story in the trilogy. It wasn’t as fun as the others, and it took itself more seriously, but it is the most meaningful, and Josh O’ Connor as a priest is one of the best Christian portrayals in recent media.
