Catholic World Report: ‘Knives Out’ movie ‘mid-tier,’ but depicts priest ‘magnificently’

The 2025 film “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” portrays a priest character “magnificently,” a Catholic World Report author wrote in a recent review. 

The premise of the film, author Nick Olszyck wrote, is that a Catholic associate priest helps a snarky atheist detective solve the murder of his parish pastor. The plot is reminiscent of the beloved “Father Brown” series by G.K. Chesterton, he commented.

“The result is much as I anticipated: a middle-tier film with some good elements but also with much worldly, pagan nonsense,” Olszyck commented.

He noted that the film portrays all traditional or orthodox beliefs as “cartoonish.” The murdered priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, is portrayed as hypocritical, lustful, and greedy.

“It’s hard to read this as anything but a characterization and chastisement of anything ‘traditional’ in Catholicism,” Olszyck wrote.

Olszyck also wrote that the plot is the weakest among the Knives Out movies. The plot twists seem “inorganic and unearned,” and the threads of the story are “either predictable or irrational,” he wrote. 

However, Olyszyck noted that he was impressed by the portrayal of the associate priest, Father Jud.

“There is one thing this film does magnificently, and that is the character of Fr. Jud, brilliantly executed by British actor Josh O’Conner, previously best known for his Emmy-winning performance as Prince Charles in The Crown,” Olszyck wrote. “Fr. Jud is charming but not naïve.”

While Fr. Jud’s character has a dubious past, he has a conversion, Olszyck stated, adding, “He is motivated by the redemption Jesus offers and wants to bring eternal life to everyone he meets.”

At the end of the film, Fr. Jud invites the atheist detective, Benoit Blanc, to Mass, and Blanc smiles wryly and tells him, “Nothing I would like to do less.” However, Olszyck wrote that the viewer is left with a sense that “maybe a seed has been planted.”

Olszyck concluded that although the storyline is somewhat weak, “if people love Fr. Jud and want to take him up on his invitation to come back to Mass, then the film will be a success in one important way.”

>> Refine Reviews: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ <<