Rating: ****
Review Date: 11/29/25
Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close,
Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis,
Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Wright
"Young, dumb, and full of Christ."
A hot-tempered, but well-meaning young priest (Josh O'Connor) is sent to a remote church as a form of penance, working for a sadistic fire and brimstone priest named Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Within a year, Wicks ends up dead inside the church in a locked room style murder. The local police chief (Mila Kunis) calls Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who takes an interest in the case, as the young, but clearly innocent priest is the number one suspect. The other possible suspects are Wicks's inner circle: a lawyer (Kerry Washington), an alcoholic doctor (Jeremy Renner), a waning author (Andrew Scott), a failed Republican politician (Daryl McCormack), an ailing cellist (Cailee Spaeny), the groundskeeper (Thomas Haden Church), and the woman who keeps the church in order (Glenn Close). While it's fairly obvious who the real villain is, the film has enough interesting twists to keep the viewer on their toes and fully engaged the entire time.
While "Glass Onion" (2022) felt like a joke making fun of both Blanc and stupid rich people in general, "Wake Up Dead Man" is much darker and has a far more serious tone. The church creates a delightfully creepy gothic atmosphere, and also highlights the hypocrisy and falseness of religion. As Father Jud puts it, "We're in Albany. The architecture is neo-gothic, but more Disneyland than medieval." Similarly, the film cleverly skewers the idiocy and depravity of Trump and his MAGA morons. And yet, even though the core of religion is rooted in evil and villainy, Father Jud is a truly good and faithful man who is simply caught in an unfortunate web of deceit - which happens to be Blanc's favorite game.
As expected, the performances are excellent all around, although once again, Daniel Craig's Foghorn Leghorn accent is toned down from the original film. It's also interesting that he doesn't show up for a full 45 minutes into the film. Josh O'Connor is fantastic and Josh Brolin is deliciously wicked as a vicious and truly evil priest. The supporting characters are mostly dull and uninteresting, but it's still interesting to see how they all fit into the big picture. Overall, I enjoyed it more than the excessive "Glass Onion." It felt more grounded, and its exploration of faith gave Blanc another puzzle piece that he wasn't expecting. And much like "Glass Onion," there's a very clever camera trick that gives away the answer, IF you're smart enough to pick up on it. An excellent job all around, and here's hoping for more Benoit Blanc mysteries in the future.