Note: This Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review contains spoilers, please avoid reading ahead if you would prefer to avoid spoilers.
Google Summary:
A baffling death inside a quiet church draws Benoit Blanc into a tense investigation where faith secrets and suspicion blur as a close community turns against itself.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Review
When the first Knives Out movie came out, I was one of the first to tell you how amazing it was and how much I enjoyed it. When Glass Onion, the second in the series, came out- I told you how much I had disliked it. It was predictable, boring, unfunny and although it did try to share important messages about the world we live in I felt that they didn’t do a good job of it and in the end it was too poorly written to have an impact. Just my opinion of course.
Well, recently Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery came out and of course I had to watch it and share my review. My dad and I ended up watching it over Christmas and having watched the trailer when the movie was first released, I knew I would very likely enjoy it. And enjoy it I did. Thoroughly so. I wanted to share my review of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery in sections just to make it easier to follow and to make sure I don’t forget anything.
Plot
I loved the plot, from beginning to end. It was much more well written compared to the last movie. The plot was interesting, kept you on edge as a good murder mystery should and most importantly it made sense. There weren’t any major or unforgivable discrepancies or errors. No unexplainable holes in the plot that ruin the whole thing.
If you’re a fan of traditional murder mysteries or a fan of Benoit Blanc, you will very much enjoy this one.
One of the main things I loved about the plot, that stood out to me, was that it was subtle. I’m sort of sick of people writing mysteries and thrillers like their audience is stupid. We’re not stupid and if anything we enjoy the subtle, between the lines themes and messages. I loved that this one had a lot of that without being too obvious about it. It felt cleverly written, at least to me.
Characters
As soon as I saw the cast for this movie, I knew they would do a fantastic job with the characters they played and that was very much the case. Not one single character was disappointing. The actors in this movie truly brought their characters to life and as always Daniel Craig was great as Benoit Blanc. Every character was complex, multidimensional, easy to both love and hate, brought out strong emotions and of course, seemed capable of murder.
Mystery
I’m not going to lie, about one fourth of the way in I was pretty sure whodunit. And it was the person I suspected. However, that doesn’t make this a bad murder mystery. Not at all. Because I don’t think the goal of the movie was so much about who but rather about the why. The why and how is what allowed the movie to explore themes central to it.
Hate, misogyny, control, greed, selfishness, pride, hunger for power and so much more. All of these are constantly present in the world, slowly sucking the life out of us like a disease. And yet, there’s hope, there’s good in the world too which I think was what Father Jud’s character was supposed to be a metaphor for. He wasn’t perfect but he was a good person that learnt from his mistakes. And the contrast between his character and that of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks is very evident. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks is “religious” but does not actually live according to the Bible and quickly excuses his own digressions while constantly judging others. Something that is specifically warned against.
Back to the how and why. Although the who was pretty clear to me, the why and especially the how was not until the end of the movie. That is one of the BIGGEST compliments I can give a murder mystery. I’ve been obsessed with reading mysteries literally since I could read. Even before I could read actually because my parents would read Enid Blyton’s mystery books to me before bed when I was too young to read them myself. Generally, I can almost always guess the who, how and why. Even if not exactly, I can guess most of it or come very close. That will tell you what a good job they did with this one.
Overall
Overall, I very much enjoyed Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Perhaps not as much as the OG Knives Out movie but this was definitely my second favourite and one of the best murder mysteries I’ve seen this year. The cast of well known actors was perfect, the writing was amazing, the vibe was on point. I honestly can’t find anything to whine about when it came to this movie which honestly may be a first here on LifesfineWHINE lol.
If you’re a fan of traditional murder mysteries (like Agatha Christie’s books), you will certainly enjoy this movie very much. I would absolutely, strongly recommend it.
Have you watched Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery ? If so, what did you think of it? Did you enjoy it as much as we did? Let me know in the comments below because I would absolutely love to hear from you. Or simply stop by and say hi!
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