Geez, Josh Brolin is intense! Somebody ought to do something about that guy.
Oh. Never mind.
Welcome to another edition of the only whodunit franchise worth talking about this century: Knives Out. This episode, Wake Up Dead Man, is all about Catholic shit. Did writer/director Rian Johnson nail it? The mystery, yes. The exposition, yes. Catholicism, oh my, no. Why, does it matter?
Let’s set up the premise: this film is about two Catholic priests, a youngster, Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), who is being punished for, well, if you know Catholics, it could literally be anything from murder to a wardrobe mishap. The veteran is the abrasive Monsignor (do NOT call him “Father”) Jefferson Wicks (Brolin), an aggressively unsupportive and territorial clergyman who seems to make a point of pissing off anybody who wants in on his parish. That includes Father Jud.
Somewhere in Godforsaken, New York, there’s a small church in bad need of repair. It was vandalized following the death of Reverend Prentice Weeks, who reportedly had a fortune that his daughter never found and trashed the place looking for it. Jefferson is his grandson.
This is the guy who dies. And there’s no mystery as to why; he’s a big jerk. Whether it’s running down potential new parishioners from the pulpit or deliberately mentioning how often he masturbates when giving his own confession to Father Jud, Monsignor Wicks is burning down to the, well, you know. And it’s only a matter of time before his expiration date elapses. And in this case, it’s a doozy – he face plants with a knife wound in a dead-end closet stage left during a “full” mass. All the suspects are present and accounted for. I won’t go into them, but this is a loaded cast. After O’Connor, the possibles include Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, and Thomas Haden Church. And every single one of these guys has an alibi for they were all looking at one another at the time of the murder off-stage.
And, before we forget, how wonderful is Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc,
anyway? I want to see this guy show up at birthday parties just for entertainment value. This is the third edition of the Benoit adventures and at this point, I hope there are a dozen more, each with a new and loaded cast of undesirable potential murderers. Detective Blanc is drawn to the murder naturally, and immediately befriend Father Jud, who seems to be taking the fall for what went down.
Wake Up Dead Man isn’t perfect film. It’s nowhere near. But it is fun. These films are like “White Lotus,” only enjoyable, and in ¼ of the time. Wake Up Dead Man is a test case for: “Do you care how many things the film got wrong about Catholicism?” [By the way, it’s more than “a few.” It’s like they didn’t have a Catholic consultant on set at all … ever.] I care, a little, I suppose, but only because there are more than a few Catholics in my life, and it’s embarrassing when I can tell Rian Johnson is phoning in that part. Does it detract from the enjoyment of the mystery? Only if you take your faith seriously.
There once was a mad priest named Wicks
Who served a flock somewhere out in the sticks
He had a cult-like mass
His sermons were a class
In teaching his people how they could be dicks
Rated PG-13, 144 Minutes
Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson
Genre: Zombie?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of locked door mysteries
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Catholics
