Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Dir: Rian Johnson

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A return to the world of genius and eccentric detective 'Benoit Blanc' was one of my more anticipated cinematic arrivals in 2025, and the promise of its trailer certainly compelled me to watch it. Rian Johnson had done a very commendable job with his 'Knives Out' films thus far, both of which I revisited prior to this third films release, so I felt fairly comfortable with the thought that I would enjoy this one too.

The cinematography, being a Rian Johnson film, was typically solid, for the most part. I wouldn't say I was blown away, and I do personally think that both of the two prior films looked a little better all-in-all, but I still liked the general look of the film. The film suffered from a rather beige and brown disposition, which worked to an extent, but I would have liked a little more colour and vibrance to be inserted here and there.

The narrative had an interesting but admittedly slow build-up, which threatened to lose my attention at various points. I was hoping things would improve once the main portion of the mystery was underway, but it never quite did. I felt that the various secondary characters lacked depth, and ultimately weren't interesting, which meant that the story would really have to pull its weight to make up for it, and unfortunately, it did not.

My biggest gripe with the film, however, was just how predictable it was. The visual cues were far too obvious, and I found that the storyline threads were not all that challenging to sew together. I'm not annoyed that I guessed the ending, as much as I'm disappointed that the red herrings weren't all that convincing. I found the previous two films far more compelling from a mystery point of view, which really disappointed me about this one.

Daniel Craig's 'Benoit Blanc' didn't quite have the pep in his step that he had done previously, although he still managed to bring a good degree of his swagger, panache, and handsome, witty charisma. For once, the great actor was outdone in this franchise, and happily, it was the talented Josh O'Connor who did it, with what was a superb performance in the film's other main role. I thought his ability to feel genuine and endearing came through in spades, which was vital in allowing his character to feel like an important and likable figure in the film.

The supporting cast was as stacked as ever - no surprise - and the two standouts were the iconic Glenn Close, who delivered one of her best performances in a very long time, and the always value for money Josh Brolin, who I thought very nearly stole the whole film with his intense, fascinating portrayal of a wayward monsignor. The rest of the cast never quite achieved the quality that I thought they might, which was, in large part, due to their character's poor writing, but even so, I felt that the likes of Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Jeffrey Wright, all deserved a name-drop at least.

Overall, I thought this was, unfortunately, the weakest 'Knives Out' mystery to-date. It lacked the cohesion, the degree of intrigue, and the characterisation of either of the previous two films, and ultimately struggled with pacing issues that slowed it down far too much in the early stages. I hope that the next film, assuming there will be one, returns to the formula that made the original mystery so strong - or at least get closer to it.