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Divine or Rational, Wake Up Dead Man Investigates the Impossible

Honestly, I respect that Wake Up Dead Man is a deeply atheist movie about the Catholic Church that nonetheless argues for the worth of its virtues when earnestly espoused. And I think that one needs to be a certain brand of lapsed Catholic (or just lapsed Christian) atheist in order to do that. To understand and depict the corrupt and exploitative power of the church, the kind of righteous piety it can give rise to and even encourage, preying specifically on the desperate and vulnerable; but also to understand what spiritually healing power faith itself can have when taken on its own and siphoned through a genuine desire to do good by a community. Rian Johnson appears to be at this crossroads in, of all things, his third Benoit Blanc murder mystery. But if there’s one thing these movies are great at, it is addressing serious and relevant themes through a whodunit framework, whether it be the entitlement and casual racism of insular elites or the insecure egotism of tech oligarch “disruptors”. He likes poking fun at and interrogating the folks making the world a worse place. But unlike either of those movies, here Johnson offers a considered counter-balance.
Though he is the central detective, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is not the real protagonist of these movies -rather he is typically a device or necessary accessory to whoever actually fills that role. In this case, it is Reverend Jud Duplenticy played by Josh O’Connor, and he is a riveting protagonist to hang the movie on. His history and relationship with the community of Chimney Rock and the congregation of its country parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is established in detail long before Blanc enters the picture -his latest introduction in one of these movies by a notable margin. But it isn’t much of a bother, because the rest of the characters -and Jud especially- are engaging enough.
As he illuminates in an ostensible letter to Blanc, Jud came to the village to serve out a kind of penance for knocking out a fellow priest -formerly he was a boxer who accidentally killed a man in the ring and turned to the church for salvation- and he has an earnest devotion in this calling. Something that is not true of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), the boorish firebrand minister of this church whom Jud is tasked to serve under and whom he comes to resent for his hypocrisy and flagrant exploitation of the frailties of his flock. These include Martha (Glenn Close), the devout church elder and witness to the disturbing history of Wicks’s mother and grandfather, her partner the groundskeeper Samson (Thomas Haden Church), Nat (Jeremy Renner) the town doctor spiteful over his wife leaving him, Lee (Andrew Scott) a formerly successful sci-fi author, Simone (Cailee Spaeny) a former concert cellist dispirited due to a disability, Vera (Kerry Washington) a lawyer who moved from the city, and her half-brother Cy (Daryl McCormack) a far-right activist and failed politician. They are our candidates when Wicks is murdered under seemingly impossible circumstances, though the prime suspect for virtually everyone is Jud himself.
The film employs a particular detective fiction technique called the ‘locked-room’ mystery in which the crime is committed in a manner that is seemingly impossible -and it is name-checked several times in the film by both Blanc and his police liaison Geraldine (Mila Kunis). Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is probably the most famous example of this kind of mystery, and Johnson applies it here as a good lightening rod for a conversation around religion and faith. If there is no logical explanation after all, could a spiritual one be out of the question?
For Blanc certainly -he dismisses religion almost right away on his first appearance, offering a compelling and impassioned argument on the institution’s faults and prejudices that indicate some personal bad history with the church. But again, the movie is not about him. The more nuanced perspective from Jud, who endeavours as much as he can to see the good in people and rejects the evils that have been done in the church’s name, is one of constant trial to maintain his faith -both in God and his congregation- and reaffirmation in the face of so many efforts to undermine him by Wicks and his loyalists alike. And there are points of mature theological discussion between Jud and Wicks and between Jud and Blanc, in which the young priest demonstrates some laudably earnest conviction and understanding. Johnson is very much having a conversation through these three characters and their wildly differing viewpoints on faith. And while nothing conclusive is reached (nor should it be), what is illustrated adeptly by the end is that compassion, honesty and trust -even if filtered through religious doctrine- are valuable tenets to embody, and especially so in a position of leadership, whatever one's beliefs may be. The priest who exercises this integrity of character, as Jud demonstrates on two very significant occasions, is worth as much as any atheist pigeonholing him and as much as a thousand other priests stoking fear and hate through their authoritative license.
There is a somewhat darker tone here emanating off of the incendiary rhetoric and allusions to divine retribution that come from Wicks (and to a lesser extent Martha), framed by Johnson with a sense of weight and dread. The backstory to this church comes with its own absorbing harshness and frightful mystery. And the town itself invites certain connotations in its spooky old village air and occasional Sleepy Hollow architectural aesthetics. The kind of place, and the church as well, that you expect would be haunted.
The film maintains this series’ fun personality though. It’s comic relief in both the filmmaking and the script is just as on point as the other movies -the personalities of these characters elaborated on in good, weird ways, from Wicks’s onslaught of masturbation confessions to Cy’s endless empty grifts to Lee’s complete spinelessness in spite of his posturing (he also gets the movie’s best meta joke). Some of these characters once the mystery kicks into gear feel notably undeveloped, such as Vera and Simone, while Geraldine -despite Kunis’s high profile- is often just a mild foil for Blanc. O’Connor, Craig, Brolin, and Close are really the drivers of the film performance-wise, but everybody does get at least a moment or two to shine in a comic beat -particularly those closest to the film’s critical, satirical targets. As in both prior movies, pretty much all the suspects excluding the protagonist are awful people, but here there is at least some spectre of innocence in that they were at least partially groomed this way by a despotic man using his religious authority to exploit and harness their foibles -except for Cy who’s just heinous through and through -clearly Johnson’s most fun target.
Fun is had with the mystery itself as well, which is intricately plotted as the details are mulled over and the illogical circumstances interrogated thoroughly -with of course new developments coming to light. Just as it is an impossible mystery, it is impossible for the audience to solve -not a prerequisite for a murder mystery by any means. Ultimately it takes some very bizarre, convoluted detours leading down the paths of multiple red herrings (the subtle invocation of a particular Agatha Christie mystery among them) that don’t quite gel holistically -certainly not compared to Knives Out- but do feel like an organic extension of the kinds of wild turns this series has taken. In spite of that, it does generally make sense in the end, and the film’s momentum is enough to satisfy. The means of the resolution plays out in a very unconventional way that is appreciated, that acknowledges and takes a step back from Blanc’s egotism with this whole detective thing and plays really well with that wider theme of virtue that Jud encapsulates as contrast.
The title of Wake Up Dead Man alludes perhaps to the movie stepping beyond the pale, reaching a little further in its suspension of disbelief -but that is appropriate for its subject matter, which is all about rationalizing the impossible -whether for a murder or the elusive quality of faith. Johnson wrestles with both in a compelling manner, delving into new territory while keeping the film in line with the series’ style and distinct personality. There will perhaps come a time where these Benoit Blanc movies start to tire, and it might do Johnson good to step away for a different original project before committing to another. But the creative steam is not gone yet, nor is importantly the integral conviction.

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