By Addison Chrivia, Editor
Warning: Contains Spoilers for Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man!
Over the past seven years, Rian Johnson has done a phenomenal job writing and directing both Knives Out and Glass Onion, rejuvenating the mystery film genre with his own original franchise. He continues to utilize characters who aren’t arrogant or geniuses, but simply kind, everyday people, such as in Knives Out, with the depiction of Marta, a nurse whose kindness overcame the greed of the Thrombeys, and Helen, an elementary school teacher who wanted to do right by her sister.
Oftentimes, in murder mysteries, we see protagonists who are larger than life and extraordinary in some way or another, but they are flawed with arrogance or selfishness. Sherlock Holmes is often depicted as an aloof and quirky genius who’s blind to his own cruelty, and this ‘insufferable genius’ trope has wormed its way into the genre. This trope is often used as a crutch in the story, having a character who is able to easily solve mysteries like a deus ex machina. While it can be done well, many use it as an excuse to slack on character writing and depth, creating a cardboard cutout of a person whose only definable trait is being smart. It would have been easy for Rian Johnson to have simply made Benoit the protagonist of the films, but he chose specifically to focus on the characters impacted by the tragedy. It’s a relatable story because it’s not about the rich, or the famous, or the powerful, but about us, the ordinary, everyday people who choose to be kind.
Our newest protagonist, Father Jud, is given a thorough introduction in Wake Up Dead Man, with most of the events of the film through his narration and point of view. Like the past Knives Out film series protagonists, the viewer is able to immediately see what a kind-hearted and selfless individual he is. He makes clear that he doesn’t think that Christianity should be about fighting, but about opening their arms to all. Despite the constant exclusion, ridicule, and cruelty he faces at his new church, he continues to empathize with those around him and take care of others regardless of his own suffering. At one point in the movie, although he is the main suspect in a murder case, he drops everything he’s doing to help a stranger pray for her sick mother for hours. Jud is what every priest should be: thoughtful, eager, forgiving, and a good listener.
In the past Knives Out films, the audience got a glimpse of the upper class and the effects of fame. The Thrombeys in the first film were a rich and powerful family, divided by their greed and selfishness, and the disruptors in Glass Onion were similarly divided by their greed but more so in their want for power and fame.
The previous films’ suspect pools had many larger-than-life personalities. One would be the Duke in Glass Onion, who was a male rights streamer who carried a loaded gun with him everywhere. While in Wake Up Dead Man, the antagonists are far more grounded, relatable, and real.
The main villain in Jud’s story is Monsieur Wicks, a small-town priest who has gone mad with what little power he has. After punching a fellow priest, Jud is sent to serve at Wick’s church, “Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude.” Upon his arrival, Wicks is immediately hostile; he has Jud take his own confessions, which are grotesque and detailed lies made to scare him into leaving. He even goes as far as to physically assault him in a bid to get him to respond. The longer that Jud is at the church, the clearer it is that Monsieur Wicks is taking advantage of his inner circle, purposefully keeping them close and being aggressive towards outsiders in order to promote loyalty and fear of his own wrath. This makes his death all the more satisfying when he is murdered. But also all the more confusing, as the only person with the opportunity and motive to kill him is the lovable Jud.
Aside from Jud, the only suspects at the church service when Wicks was killed are his inner circle.
There’s Lee, a washed-up sci-fi writer who, in working to find himself, became caught up in rabbit-hole conspiracy theories; he became so fueled by his own fear that he cut himself off from everyone. Vera is a lawyer forced by her father to raise a child when she herself was a teen. Funding the entire church is Simone, a former cellist with chronic pain, who is being promised by Wicks that she’ll be healed as long as she keeps sending money to the church. Dr. Nat is a recent divorcee who became an alcoholic and, in his grief for his late wife, found misogynistic rhetoric. The illegitimate son of Monsieur Wicks is Cy; raised by Vera, he is a failed politician and aspiring influencer. Rian Johnson gives us a peek into each one of their lives, showing us how each of them became such terrible people. Putting them in the lens of Jud’s perspective, the audience understands them and wants to see them change for the better.
In addition to these church attendees, there is Martha, an older woman who is deeply religious, uptight, and temperamental.
Martha was raised in the church by Wick’s grandfather, Prentice. Prentice was a spiteful man who was very cruel to his daughter, Grace, who is referred to by her son, Wicks, and Martha throughout the movie as the ‘Harlot Whore.’ After her pregnancy forces her to stay with her abusive father, her only hope is that when he dies, she’ll inherit his massive fortune. Rather than leave her anything at all, Prentice waits until Martha is in the room with him and swallows a very large, priceless diamond, which he bought with all his money. He ends up choking to death on it while Martha watches, before which he had made her promise not to tell anyone the secret of where the gem was. He ends up buried in a large marble tomb outside the church, reserved with two spots, one for him and one for his grandson.
The blatant misogyny rooted in this church’s history is very clear, from the way Martha is treated throughout the film, and taken advantage of by Wick, doing all the work while he takes all the credit. You see it again, through Vera’s father and Wick, who had her raise Cy for him, rather than face the consequences of his own actions. Grace was completely villainized for her pregnancy, despite raising her son and doing her best while having to rely on her abusive father. Meanwhile, Wick is being a complete hypocrite, hiding his illegitimate son by secretly passing him off to young Vera to raise while still bashing his own mother in his sermons.
Martha was raised in this misogyny, and we see that her role in the church is to play mother and wife to Wick, doing all of the tasks and chores that he has no interest in. She files all of the church’s paperwork, she cleans, she does his laundry, and yet receives no acknowledgement from him; all of this behavior is simply expected of her.
This film tackles religion in a way I rarely see, giving it respect and honor while simultaneously acknowledging the way it can be used to harm people and giving space for those who aren’t religious/don’t ever want to be. Jud is a profoundly Christian person, having devoted his career and his life to it, while series protagonist Benoit Blanc is extremely not. Blanc is all about the facts, is very comfortable in his Atheism, and resistant to Christianity because of his previous experiences. Yet, Blanc still likes Jud, recognizes that he is a good person, and wants to see him do good for his church. Blanc recognizes that Christianity isn’t like that for everyone, but that it can be healing and helpful to others. At no point in the movie do they force Benoit to give up his beliefs, nor do they do so to Jud; both coexist and enjoy each other’s company without ceding their beliefs or values.
My main problem with this movie is the mystery itself and its final reveal. In previous Knives Out films, the murderer is always the person never suspected by Blanc at all, and is completely separated from or not included at all in the pool of suspects. Along with the flashbacks and foreshadowing in Wake Up Dead Man, I was able to guess who the killer was immediately. However, throughout the film, there was a complete lack of transparency with information about the crime, and the final reveal turns out to be a Rube Goldberg machine of events that would have been impossible to guess, making the whole concept hard to understand even with the background knowledge.
The whole mystery hinges on the locked room and how Wicks was killed without anyone near him. Throughout the entire movie, Jud and Benoit are gathering clues, all of which are red herrings and lead to no furtherance of our understanding of what might have happened to him. Motives for why the suspects would have murdered him are revealed, but there isn’t anything of substance. Then, after Jud has given up, he witnesses a series of confusing events that make him believe he murdered someone. These events are only given context in the full reveal, just adding more confusing and unparseable information to the mix. It is less a mystery and more a thriller, watching events happen to Jud and play out around him, whilst learning next to nothing of use until the very end of the movie.
While the reveal was overcomplicated, the conclusion of the film was phenomenal. Detective Blanc stepped back and finally let Jud do his job as a priest, as Jud takes a confession and gives forgiveness to Martha before she dies. Watching her repent for the sins she committed against Grace and against the others was healing both for her and the viewer. It really showed how kindness and an open ear can heal people. Being able to see someone actually grow and recognize what they did wrong and be given peace and forgiveness, despite the terrible things done, was incredibly poignant. In addition to this, we got a happy ending, with Jud leading the church and renaming it to “Our Lady of Perpetual Grace” as a grace-filled ode to the young girl who was wronged.
Simone ends up leaving the church and finding acceptance with her pain, and Vera finally lets go of trying to please her father. Meanwhile, Dr. Nat Lee is killed by Martha, whom he underestimated, his own misogyny weaponized against him. Lee writes another book, which receives underwhelming reviews, and Cy is consumed by his greed, dedicating his life to trying to find the fortune, unable to let go of the past. While Benoit did stop in to see Jud off one last time, he chose not to go to the first mass. Allowing both sides to coexist and not forcing the other to believe their ideas. It was very pleasant to see, especially in a time where the real world feels like everyone is shoving their most extreme opinions in your face and expecting you to agree or become their enemy. Overall, it was a fantastic film, living up to the weight of the previous success of the Knives Out franchise with tangible characters, wonderful themes of coexistence, kindness, healing, and, in the end, forgiveness. It tackled a lot of very heavy topics in a delicate and sensible way, balancing different opinions admirably. While the mystery itself was lacking in its construction, it was a fantastic film with so much heart put into it. More movies need to be made with this level of thoughtfulness and kindness in mind, rather than attention-grabbing and marketable. The Knives Out movies are single-handedly redefining the mystery genre, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what Rian Johnson makes next.
