Glenn Close is all too aware of how a certain strain of religious fundamentalism can turn toxic. When Close was 7 years old, her parents joined the Moral Re-Armament, a spiritual movement led by an American minister named Frank Buchman that she likens to a cult.

“When I was little, we’d be ushered into this little man named Uncle Frank’s room, and you thought you were meeting God,” Close says. “I don’t think people join cults like that if they’re happy or if they’re whole people. Something’s missing in their lives.”

Close drew on that experience to play Martha Delacroix, the right-hand woman to a fiery preacher, Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), in “ Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery .” In the film, Martha wields her devotion like a cudgel, making sure that Wicks’ congregation stays

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