‘WAKE UP DEAD MAN’ ON NETFLIX
The prolific British murder-mystery writer Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, the central character of apparently half of her innumerable novels, is one of the most iconic figures, on par with the brilliant eccentric Sherlock Holmes and hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe.
The 2019 film “Knives Out,” written and directed by Rian Johnson, created Benoit Blanc as an oddball private detective with a Southern drawl and a sharp mind who resembles a modern-day Hercule Poirot figure.
Poirot and Blanc have in common the ability to unravel intricate family secrets and crimes. For the third film in the “Knives Out” franchise, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc will be summoned to upstate New York to solve the murder of a clergyman.
“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” sets the whodunit in a Catholic Church, where Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a firebrand preacher whose demeanor at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude holds sway over a diminished number of faithful parishioners.
Meanwhile, change is coming to the small parish in Chimney Rock when young Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), previously a powerful street boxer who killed a man in the ring, is dispatched by Bishop Langstrom (Jeffrey Wright) to work with Monsignor Wicks.
Despite anger issues which caused him to punch a church deacon, Father Jud is given a second chance partly because nobody liked the deacon and the Chimney Rock parish is in decline and in need of a fresh face.
The bishop is no fan of Monsignor Wicks, observing that he’s “a few beads shy of a full rosary” and a very unpleasant person whose flock is shrinking. Saying “Christ came to heal the world, not to fight it,” the young priest might be the tonic to fix the church.
At the rural church, the Wicks legacy runs deep with buried secrets. The monsignor’s grandfather Prentice Wicks promised Jefferson’s mother Grace an inheritance if she remained with the church, but then she was left empty-handed upon his death.
Flashbacks reveal that Grace (Annie Hamilton) exacted revenge on the church by overturning statues, destroying religious paintings, and desecrating the crucifix, and then beating up adolescent Martha, who would later become the church secretary in adulthood.
During fiery sermons, the monsignor has a knack for driving away unsuspecting visitors who drop in for a Catholic Mass. What’s left of the congregation are mostly sycophants, especially the devoted church lady Martha (Glenn Close) and groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church).
Not shying away from a theological debate with Wicks, Father Jud disapproves of the fire and brimstone sermons that resonate only with what few parishioners cling to a blind loyalty to the monsignor.
Upon his initial meeting with Wicks, Father Jud is asked to take his confession, which starts with his sin of envying the wealth and power of others, before veering off into too much detail about sexual self-gratification.
The confession looks like Wicks is playing mind games, and then makes it clear the church belongs to him and that Father Jud is just an upstart sent by Bishop Langstrom, who obviously has his own agenda.
Trying to offer a counterbalance to Wicks’ preaching, Father Jud convenes a prayer group of the most loyal congregants with the mission to break down walls between members of the church and Christ, before confessing his own transgressions in his youth.
The coterie of congregants assembled by Father Jud include local doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), an alcoholic since his wife left him; Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), an excitable attorney with family secrets; and Simone (Cailee Spaeny), a cellist confined to a wheelchair due to an accident.
Vera’s illegitimate brother Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) aspires to a political career and obsesses over social media to chronicle his interactions; and Lee Ross (Andrew Scott) seeks to regain acclaim as a writer but now obsesses with conspiracy theories.
Rounding out the prayer group is Martha, the reliable mainstay of Wicks’ ministry. When the parishioners find out that the monsignor had not been aware of Father Jud’s meeting, they abruptly leave, voicing their displeasure with what they deem a deception.
When the monsignor is mortally stabbed in a vestibule during church service, Father Jud’s volatile past as a boxer renders him a prime suspect. At this point, 40 minutes into the film is when Benoit Blanc arrives on the scene.
For Police Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), the evidence, however circumstantial, which includes video of threats to the monsignor, points to Father Jud as the likely culprit.
The master sleuth Blanc has his doubts that the young priest is guilty and sets his sights on finding the real killer. In his iconoclastic approach, Blanc is the champion of the disadvantaged and can’t be swayed by public opinion.
“Wake Up Dead Man,” to be true to Blanc as the skeptic who eventually finds the truth, takes an interesting turn in that Father Jud, for all his faults, is the most fascinating character for this entertaining twisted mystery story.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.