• Director: Rian Johnson
• Screenplay: Rian Johnson
• Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church
• Cinematography: Steve Yedlin
• Editing: Bob Ducsay
• Score: Nathan Johnson
• Genre: Mystery
• Runtime: 144 minutes

I must confess: I’m not a fan of the ‘Knives Out‘ series. This third entry, ‘Wake Up Dead Man‘, is slightly better than the first two films but that’s not saying a lot.

After assaulting a deacon, a young priest, Jud (Josh O’Connor), is relocated to a small parish under the thumb of the fearsome Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Wicks’ sermons from the pulpit strike terror into the hearts of his congregation. Jud, a former boxer who’s seen the light, preaches love, not war. When Wicks dies in seemingly impossible circumstances, Jud is the prime suspect.

He’s really the only suspect though. There’s an all-star cast yet most of them aren’t utilised like they deserve to be. Josh O’Connor is tremendous; he features in a greater capacity than Daniel Craig’s Detective Blanc. The story, a classic locked door mystery, is more about Jud’s quest to clear his name without the need for Blanc entirely. In fact, when the detective entered the house of God and bellowed “Hello” in his Southern drawl a good chunk into the runtime, I audibly groaned.

For such a weighty subject matter, religion is weaved into the narrative the proper amount. With making each Benoit Blanc case stand out visually and tonally (‘Knives Out”s stately home, ‘Glass Onion”s luxury island), the church and its pageantry could just have been a game of dress up – cassocks as mere costumes, the holy building a backdrop while clues are scoured for. The conversation between Blanc and Jud on how the religious parables found in the Bible is another form of storytelling was interesting.

And as stories go, this one is full of pomposity. I predicted as much when I started watching; Rian Johnson isn’t a miracle worker. No Hail Marys could convince me otherwise.

My rating: 5 / 10