Wake Up Dead Man 

After Knives Out (set in an opulent mansion) and Glass Onion (set on a tech billionaire’s private island), director Rian Johnson sought a very different setting for Benoit Blanc’s third mystery. He found it in a rural parish in upstate New York, to which we are introduced by a likeable protagonist with the unlikely name Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor).

Father Jud is a young priest and former boxer who has been sent to the parish after an altercation. In the film’s first act, he gradually introduces us to the community around Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude: the combative Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin); his devout right-hand woman Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close); assorted churchgoers. The act ends with a seemingly impossible murder being committed.

This, of course, is what summons private detective Blanc (Daniel Craig). While he makes it very clear that he is not a man of faith, he nevertheless takes Father Jud under his wing and relies on him to help investigate the murder.

What follows is a romp every bit as delightful and convoluted as the other entrants in the Knives Out series. What’s different this time is that Rian Johnson has a bit more to say — on how faith can be abused; on the important social work that often goes hand in hand with religion; on grace as an idea that transcends belief itself.

It’s not perfect, of course. Rian Johnson employs a familiar formula, combining somewhat predictable twists with an absurd central mystery only Benoit Blanc can figure out. Suspension of disbelief is very much part of the price of admission. You gotta have a little faith, in other words.

Benoit Blanc remains a delightful character, and Daniel Craig is clearly still having fun with the part. I look forward to the gentleman detective’s next case.