Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (12A, 144 mins)
Verdict: Fabulous return to form
The first Knives Out in 2019 was so much fun that, inevitably, the critical knives came out when its 2022 follow–up, Glass Onion, failed to live up to expectations.
That was one of those movies in which the cast seemed to be enjoying themselves more than the audience. But Wake Up Dead Man marks a thunderous return to form. Indeed, it’s even better than the original: a laugh–aloud gothic thriller so smartly written, ingeniously plotted and gloriously acted that I wanted to hug the person next to me. Happily, that was my wife.
I first saw Wake Up Dead Man during last month’s London Film Festival but on Wednesday evening I went with her to see it again, at the Everyman in Stratford–upon–Avon. The town’s most famous son, I fancy, would have loved it. Even while tackling heavy themes – revenge, redemption, ambition, greed, faith – Rian Johnson’s movie effervesces with wit. Shakespeare could do that, too.
Forty minutes pass before we see Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig’s dapper Southern detective with the accent that a mint julep would have if it could talk – albeit a mint julep made on the Wirral.
Craig is fabulous, but even he is eclipsed by the superb Josh O’Connor, who plays a young Catholic priest called Jud Duplenticy, an ex–boxer with a tattoo on his neck attesting to his bad–boy past.
After a spot of bother at the seminary, Jud is sent to Chimney Rock in upstate New York, to a church called Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude run with charismatic tyranny by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin, having a ball), who is said to be ‘a few beads shy of a full rosary’ and whose uncompromising fire–and–brimstone sermons always cause at least one outraged newcomer to walk out.
Wicks is deeply mistrustful of Jud, and so are the congregants in his thrall, among them the jilted local doctor (Jeremy Renner), a best–selling sci–fi author (Andrew Scott) and a slimy aspiring politician (Daryl McCormack).
But the monstrous monsignor’s chief disciple is creepy Martha Delacroix, a Mrs Danvers–type impeccably played by Glenn Close, with a startling habit of seeming to materialise out of thin air.
Daniel Craig, a dapper Southern detective, is fabulous in the latest Knives Out, writes Brian Viner
The film also features Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis, Daryl McCormack, Glenn Close, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington (left to right)
Martha has worked at the church all her life; long enough to have served Wicks’s grandfather Prentice, who was also the priest, but whose colossal family fortune was hidden before it could pass to his daughter, Wicks’s late mother Grace, known locally as ‘the harlot whore’.
The whereabouts of that fortune is one of the mysteries Blanc must solve, after befriending Jud. But the principal mystery is the one that has brought him to town in the first place: during a service in Holy Week, Wicks is murdered. But by whom?
It turns out that, in the manner of all the best Agatha Christie novels (a couple of which are duly referenced by the script), there is no shortage of suspects. Johnson, the writer–director, has a proper hoot with all this, throwing in red herrings, Hitchcock–style MacGuffins and mischievously ambiguous flashbacks for all he is worth.
He could not have chosen a better cast, any more than the cast could want for a better script, which from where we were sitting on Wednesday, on one of those comfy Everyman sofas, adds up to just about the perfect formula for a comedy thriller.
If I had to quibble, I might question the 12A certificate… there are a couple of pretty disturbing images, one involving an acid bath. But then 12–year–olds are more knowing than they used to be. This film is an absolute blast for (nearly) all the family.
All films are out now.
ALSO SHOWING…
Blue Moon (15, 100 mins)
Lorenz Hart was the brilliant, tortured lyricist whose partnership with Richard Rodgers yielded some of the last century’s most enduring songs, including The Lady Is A Tramp and My Funny Valentine. Another provides the title of Richard Linklater’s absorbing film Blue Moon.
Linklater and screenwriter Robert Kaplow cleverly use the events of a single evening – March 31, 1943 – to tell us the story of Hart’s career and descent into the alcoholism that would kill him a few months later, aged 48.
He is played, wonderfully, by Ethan Hawke, with Linklater using some tricksy sleights of camera to make the averagely tall Hawke look as short as Hart was (less than 5ft).
That night, the musical Oklahoma! opened with great fanfare on Broadway. But Rodgers had teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein to write it, because Hart had proved so hard to work with. After the premiere, at Sardi’s restaurant nearby, Hart’s bitterness sloshes out.
Lorenz Hart, a tortured lyricist, is played wonderfully by Ethan Hawke, writes Brian Viner
Bobby Cannavale plays the Sardi’s bartender, with Andrew Scott as Rodgers and Margaret Qualley as a bright young undergraduate, the object of Hart’s decidedly creepy infatuation. The acting is wonderful, but really this rather theatrical film is all about the dialogue: a bit smart–alecky at times but crafted with manifest respect for our intelligence, which always feels flattering.
Christy (15, 94 mins, HHIII) is less successful, despite Sydney Sweeney’s terrific performance as boxer Christy Martin, in the true story of her rise to fame, and sustained abuse (ending in attempted murder) at the hands of her husband and coach, Jim Martin (Ben Foster). Alas, the boxing scenes lack credibility in a film weighed down by cliché and one–dimensional characterisation.
Zootropolis 2 (PG, 108 mins)
Verdict: Animal magnetism
By Peter Hoskin
Laurel and Hardy, Astaire and Rogers, sweet and salty popcorn… to the list of great cinematic duos we can now add Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde – the go–getting bunny cop and grifting fox, voiced brilliantly by Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman, who first partnered up in 2016’s megahit Zootropolis.
In that movie, they figured out their differences in a wonderfully vibrant city where mice live alongside lions. In this new sequel, they’re still doing that – except it’s deeper this time.
Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde – the go–getting bunny cop and grifting fox, are voiced brilliantly by Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman
Now that they’re both on the force, Judy and Nick have to learn how to make their working partnership, well, work. It involves compromises and hard truths; as kids’ films go, it’s pretty mature.
The same could be said about the plot. The first film gave our heroes a knotty case to solve; this one gives them Chinatown. The villainous Lynxley family, old patricians of the city, have cheated a snake family out of their patent rights.
Throw in a long reference to Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and there’s almost too much here for the adults.
Still, there’s enough joy and colour to transfix any child. My five–year–old son declared it his new favourite film, so he’d add an extra rating star. But certainly add two stars for Judy and Nick on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
