Dead Again

This is a gripping film, multi-layered, with a good script and good performances from its cast.

The story is interesting: a woman (plagued by a recurring nightmare) lands up, unable to speak, with amnesia, at a local convent. Mike Church (Branagh) must find out who she is. (We 'know', owing to black and white footage (featuring the same actors, but different characters, about 40 years ago, shortly after WW II) Through hypnotherapy, questions of reincarnation and past lives emerge.The film creates, rather than answers, questions. There are a number of twists and turns in the plot to make this film gripping.

I was not totally convinced that the ending of the film serves its purpose, but the film is gripping. Do see it.

An amnesiac (Emma Thompson) and a private eye (Kenneth Branagh) find they might have a past life connection.

Somehow this film ended up on my list of horror and thriller films to see. Horror? Not in the slightest. Thriller? Perhaps. Regardless, it does have a bit of the supernatural (past lives) and some great actors involved. Any time Wayne Knight gets to be anyone other than Newman or the villain in "Jurassic Park" is a good thing.

Although I would not recommend to this to anyone looking for a thriller, it is a better than average movie that seems to have slipped through the cracks. I certainly never heard of it before and knew nothing about it until I hit play.

This movie is one of the unappreciated jewels of the 1990's, a film done so well that virtually every aspect, from script to direction to performances to music to editing, sweeps you away. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson (who were then married)each played two roles, one in the past, one in the present, with different clothes, hairstyles and accents, as part of a couple destined to be together forever.

Branagh, coming off his rookie directing debut in HENRY V, did a simply beautiful job here, using the same creative team as HV (Patrick Doyle deserves especial kudos for his astounding musical score). Playing both a cynical private eye ("I'm not looking for Miss Right; I'm looking for Miss Right Now") and a jealous German composer from the 1940's, he turns in two complete portraits of unusual men, while directing as well.

The film didn't stay in theaters long (most likely due to studio politics), but has apparently found a new audience on video. I've loved it since the first time I saw it, in its first run (I admit to seeing it five times in the theater and buying it on video the day it came out) -- so I may be slightly prejudiced -- but from every angle -- thriller, love story, character study -- it's a winner. See it on DVD and hear Branagh's comments on various aspects of the film -- that adds another dimension right there.

In fact, see it any way you can. It's just marvelous.

Trying to work à la Hitchcock is a very perilous task:Kenneth Branagh walks out with honors.The numerous influences and nods are interesting:"Notorious" "Rebecca" "Spellbound" "Vertigo""dial M for murder" come to mind but there are certainly more...Brannagh is a pupil who assimilates things easily.He's helped by a stellar cast:his then-wife Emma Thompson,really beautiful,Hanna Shygulla ,in an underwritten part ,Robin Williams,Campbell Scott,Andy Garcia -You want to stop smoking?Have a look at his last scene!-.... The marvelously far-fetched plot grabs the audience till the very end as the two stories meet.Brannagh and Thompson succeeded in creating two characters each .The director cleverly uses in turn color (present) and black and white (past).The finale in the flat where the amnesic girl keeps her surrealist works (a la Dali,like in "spellbound" ) is grand guignol at its best.That's entertainment!

Although he received tremendous praise for his memorable film production of Shakespeare's HENRY V, DEAD AGAIN was the film that really introduced actor/director Kenneth Branagh to mainstream American film, and for a time he and then-wife Emma Thompson were the most celebrated acting couple since Olivier and Leigh. The marriage did not last, but fortunately this film did--and I say fortunately, for although it is somewhat forgotten today, DEAD AGAIN is an overlooked jewel of a film: classy, noir-ish, stylish, and very memorable indeed.

The story is fanciful. In the late 1940s noted composer Roman Strauss was convicted of murdering his noted pianist wife Margaret, and was sentenced to death. Some forty years later, a young woman suffering from amnesia falls into the hands of a no-nonsense Los Angeles private eye--and under hypnosis she recalls not her immediate past, but the lives of Roman and Margaret. Is this reincarnation? Is she Margaret Strauss? Is the private eye to whom she is attracted but of whom she is also strangely fearful the reincarnation of Roman Strauss, Margaret's killer? Is history repeating itself? Scott Frank's clever script makes for a fast-paced, twisting, and fascinating plot-driven film--and it is flawlessly played by Branagh and Thompson, who assume dual roles as the 1940s Roman and Margaret Strauss and the 1980s Mike Church and Grace. The supporting cast is also excellent, with memorable performances by Andy Garcia and Derek Jacobi--and a truly exceptional cameo by Robin Williams, who here for the first time demonstrated that his talents went far beyond comedy. The shifts between past and present, nightmare and reality are exceedingly well done, and although the plot becomes more and more fantastic the entire film is so perfectly executed that one buys into it every step of the way.

If DEAD AGAIN has a flaw, it is that some of the twists and turns are predictable--but in the film's favor I must admit that it sweeps you along so quickly that you seldom have time to analyze that failing while you actually watch the film. It is also to a certain extent a "one trick pony" film; the film is at its most powerful upon a first viewing, when one is oblivious to what is coming. But even so, it is tremendously effective and it holds up as well today as when it first appeared on the big screen. The current DVD includes little in the way of extras beyond commentary tracks by producer Lindsay Doran, writer Scott Frank, and director-star Kenneth Branagh--and these are as hit-and-miss as commentary tracks usually are, but they hit more often than miss. The picture and sound quality is overall very good. Recommended!

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer