Wake Up Dead Man

Audiences are coming into the third Benoit Blanc feature with an abundance of expectations. Yes, we hope that Rian Johnson and company will deliver another fun entry in the murder mystery genre. But after two films, we also now have an idea of what each new “A Knives Out Mystery” entry will include. Marvel actors in unsympathetic roles? Check. A strong moral lesson? Of course. A suspect turned protagonist that helps Blanc? No doubt. With these extranarrative elements established, the challenge becomes to either break from trend or invent a new way to keep from being too predictable.

There is a moment in Wake Up Dead Man where Josh O’Connor’s Jud Duplenticy, this film’s version of a suspect-protagonist, explains that in order to avoid the sin of lying, he just avoids saying things that would not be true. Jud’s perspective is in some ways the embodiment of the camera in a mystery film. In a game of “can you solve it before it’s revealed?” showing something untrue to the audience is cheating. But here, we can see how Johnson as a writer gets around this limit on his directing and stays ahead of us viewers. 

In Knives Out, the camera shows us the circumstances of Harlan’s death outright. No lies. It just opts not to show the additional details that would make Marta innocent. We think we know what happened, so we stop trying to find suspects. In the opposite direction, for the first half of Glass Onion, there is no indication that a murder has already occurred. Like the participants in Bron’s murder mystery game, by the time we know the game has started, Blanc has already solved the case. These choices shape the very structure of each of these narratives, making the former function as a thriller and having the latter to replay scenes with new contexts.

On first glance, Wake Up Dead Man appears to not be pulling any of these same tricks. The strategy in keeping us behind pace of the detective seems to simply be using the idea of an “impossible crime,” so utterly complicated that even Blanc can only untangle it one piece at a time. That element is there, but there is still a structural device being used. With Jud embodying the camera, we follow his point of view even more than the other perspective characters in the series. This is to say that the first section of the film falls entirely within the framing device of his written testimony. If we believe that his account includes only what he knows to be true, we must decode what is presented through what truths he knows but has chosen not to include—also known as what Johnson wouldn’t want the camera to see.

It is worth mentioning that there is a moment in Glass Onion when the camera does lie. After Bron lies about what we saw before a major death, we see his account of events depicted, an editing decision I suspect might be included because of the film’s distribution on a streaming service to prevent rewinding. But this suggestion that the camera can be lied to reminds us that Jud can be lied to. His written retelling of events contains the personal accounts others share for the events prior to his arrival. As a result, Wake Up Dead Man becomes a nest egg of stories with varying levels of veritability.     

Of course, the other aspects that make up a Knives Out feature, beyond toying with the structure, still all work. The commentary is strong, as Johnson juxtaposes a religious community hellbent on driving people away against a belief system that should want to bring people in. 

As always, the ensemble cast is fantastic from top to bottom. If there is one true issue with the movie, it is the fact that we do not spend enough time with many of them. With actors this talented, it is a shame that quite a few are underutilized. It is a relief, then, the actors that do get the spotlight are simply remarkable. Like Ana de Armas and Janelle Monae before him, O’Connor excels in the leading role. Jud’s conviction against lying even parallels Marta Cabrera’s inability to do so, creating a link between those characters. The anchor of the series, Craig’s Blanc, remains as fun to watch as ever. The character seems to have brought the lessons of the prior films with him. To some degree, it seems he’s taking on Jud as a sidekick simply because it worked with the honest Marta and he wants to replicate results. In this case, there’s a moment toward the end that is a direct echo to a scene near the end of her story, creating a pleasant bookend for the trilogy.

In these ways, Wake Up Dead Man is the ultimate Knives Out mystery. It’s a decoder to understand the camera work in the prior films. It builds on their conventions, unpacks how they work, and could serve well as the final entry of the franchise. Whether or not the lessons Blanc learns here will continue to reshape his process again for a future fourth installment remains to be seen. But until then, I am satisfied to sit here with a completed set of Benoit Blanc films, having had a full three course meal as well as a peek into the kitchen. 

9/10