Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"

There are two types of confession a person can make. There's the one you give to a priest in a confessional, and the one you give in a police station: in this separation of church and state, the former absolves you, while the latter incriminates you. Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in his whodunnit Knives Out series, is interested in both types – and it makes for the most thoughtful entry yet, without losing any of its trademark humor and buoyancy.

Johnson's follow-up to 2022's Glass Onion is a massive upgrade on its predecessor, swapping its limp takedown of tech billionaires for a meatier, more interesting analysis of morality, religion, and the harm we do to each other. This is mostly explored through Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), a young priest who's sent to the small town of Chimney Rock, New York to atone for breaking the jaw of "some asshole deacon [who] said something way out of line." Before he was a priest, Jud was a boxer who spent time on the street, and he's done his best to turn his anger into love for Jesus and others: his whole deal is healing the world, rather than fighting it.

When he arrives at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, Jud quickly discovers that he's not welcome in Chimney Rock. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) keeps his faithful flock enthralled with impassioned sermons that Jud soon realizes are much more concerned with fighting the world than healing it, and he's not interested in sharing the limelight with any other member of the clergy. Wicks provides a not-so-subtle allegory for right-wing cults of personality, but Wake Up Dead Man is more effective than Glass Onion's attempts at social analysis – mostly due to the fact that Wicks is surrounded by relatively normal people who highlight the absurdity of his words and actions.

True lies

The monsignor's congregation includes Martha (Glenn Close), Wicks' right-hand woman, and embittered lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), who resents spending her life raising obnoxious wannabe-politician-turned-influencer Cy (Daryl McCormack), whom she believes to be her father's illegitimate son. There's also newly separated doctor Nat (Jeremy Renner), who's struggling to come to terms with life without his wife and kids, Lee (Andrew Scott), a one-time hit sci-fi writer who's now in "Substack hell", and Simone (Cailee Spaeny), a cellist who was forced to retire early in her career due to chronic pain.

Jud believes that Wicks is keeping his congregation angry and afraid instead of helping them heal and move on, and during a fiery confrontation with the monsignor, he says that he'll do "whatever it takes" to save the church. Quite soon after that, Wicks drops dead during his Good Friday service, and all fingers point to Jud. This is the cue for Daniel Craig's rakish private detective Benoit Blanc to appear – a fair way into the movie's runtime, which is to its detriment.

When Blanc arrives in Chimney Rock, he's already certain of how he feels about religion: he's not a fan. He's concerned with the storytelling and facades involved in faith, and Jud concedes that Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, in its imitation of a medieval European building, has more in common with Disneyland than Notre Dame. But just as Jud puts his faith in Jesus, Blanc puts his faith in logic, and all faith can be shaken. As the stories-within-stories surrounding Wicks' death come to light, it seems Blanc's beliefs may have more in common with his perceived notions of organized religion than he initially thought. But, the film seems to be asking us, what is any of this storytelling trying to convince us of? The truth, or lies? Wake Up Dead Man exposes new vulnerabilities in Blanc, making him feel more interesting, more fallible, and more well-rounded as a character.

At nearly two and a half hours, the movie feels too long (although it's actually the shortest movie in the trilogy so far). That's because it gets too convoluted and baggy around the edges, and the otherwise pacy film stalls as the script trips over too many details and explanations behind various plot twists – some of which prove to be false starts, anyway. Not all hope is lost, though: Wake Up Dead Man sticks the landing in the final act when everything comes together to reveal the truth in a satisfying – and surprisingly moving – conclusion.

Return to form

O'Connor holds his own against Craig's charismatic Blanc and proves himself as a leading man in his least understated role yet, after honing his hangdog look in independent films like La Chimera and The Mastermind. He balances Jud's anger and difficult past with a desire to be good that feels genuine, channelling a hardness that falls away whenever his face is illuminated by the light of the church's stained glass windows.

Spaeny, meanwhile, gives a good supporting turn as Simone, adding another string to her bow after leading last year's Alien: Romulus. Glenn Close is cartoonishly campy as the devout Martha, but she does a skilful 180 on an otherwise fairly one-note (if entertaining) character in the final act to give one of the movie's most touching performances. The weak link is Mila Kunis' police chief Geraldine, a bland and underbaked side character who's merely going through the motions to act as a sensible foil to Blanc's unconventional detective.

The movie also endeavors to do some interesting self-reflection: Jud's frustration at the "game" of mystery-solving is a prod at our true crime fascination and so-called 'cozy crime' as a genre. By swapping gaudy satire for introspection (without losing any of the franchise's trademark flamboyance), Wake Up Dead Man brings Knives Out back to its roots and makes for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery arrives in theaters on November 26 and starts streaming on Netflix on December 12. For more, fill out your watchlist with our picks of the other best movies on Netflix.