It's Movie Time!
Today our attention turns to another mystery requiring the unique skills and talents of that courtly Southern gentlerman detective known as Benoit Blanc.
It's a story of murder wrapped up in the rituals of religion and the charismatic captivations of a cult.
Caught up in the intrigue is a young priest with a fairly decent handle of what he thinks Jesus Christ expects of people.
Opposing him is an older priest and an entire church who have an opposing point of view.
Welcome to Rian Johnson's latest entry in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man.
Say hello to Father Jud Duplenticy, a young Catholic priest.
Jud used to be a boxer until he killed another fighter in the ring.
A quest for redemption and peace led him to his Christian faith and into the priesthood.
Sometimes the fighter within wells up as it does when Father Jud solves a dispute with a rude deacon by punching him in the face.
Jud's mentor says the deacon had it coming but Jud still needs to answer for his violent outburst.
So it's off to exile in rural upstate New York where Jud is assigned as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude.
The senior pastor is Monsignor Jefferson Wicks.
No familiar "Father Jeff" for this guy.
He insists on being addressed as Monsignor.
Wicks leads his small congregation with a firm grip. Each member of the church seems to hold the Monsignor has their personal salvation of their faults, foibles and sins.
Wicks deliver fiery sermons from his pulpit, raging with adrenaline fueled hate at such sins of the world as single mothers and other perceived threats to our moral fiber.
His sermons are hit with the white Christian Nationalists crowd on the internet.
Monsignor Jefferson Wicks also has a backstory rife with scandal, greed and deceit.
Wicks is the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks. a tyrannical pastor who previously ran Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. The elder Wicks accumulated a great deal of wealth that vanished after his death.
It seems all that wealth was distilled into a single perfect gemstone called "Eve's Apple". If anyone found where Prentice Wicks hid Eve's Apple, they would be extraordinarily rich.
Meanwhile, Jud comes into conflict with Monsignor Jefferson Wicks over his fiery preaching that's driving away new attendees and his abusive actions towards those who elect to stay.
During a Good Friday service, Wicks steps away from the pulpit to a storage closet to "fortify" himself. (Grab a drink from his whiskey flask.)
While Jud is in front of the church, we hear a crashing sound from the closet. Where Wicks is lying on the floor, bleeding, stabbed to death.
It's,,,, murder!
Even though Jud was standing in front of the congregation when Wicks fell, they immediately accuse the young priest of the crime.
The local sheriff calls in her good friend to help.
Enter Benoit Blanc.
(Damn! That took me awhile, didn't it?)
It occurs to me as I write this how much of this movie belongs to Josh O'Connor as Father Jud. Not to diminish Daniel Craig's return as Benoit Blanc who is as colorful and distinctive as ever but Blanc's role is in support of Jud's struggles, his narrative Arc as he seeks not only his redemption but to save those around him.
But there is still the matter of the dead Monsignor. Who killed him? And how? and why?
It's a veritable nest of vipers Benoit Blanc has strolled into, exploring multiple possibitities that seem not to do much to whittle down the list of suspect.
Who didn't want to kill Monsignor Jefferson Wicks?
The road to the resolution of the crime is as twisty and dark as we come to expect from writer/director Rian Johnson and the ending of the tale is satisfying and more than a little heartbreaking.
Sometimes those we would judge harshly and condemn are most in need of compassion and forgiveness.
The movie ends not with Blanc but with Father Jud, reopening the church with the new name of Our Lady of Perpetual Grace.
The end credits of the film feature a series of portraits of the main characters, for which the cast posed in costume for English painter Isabella Watling
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