Customer Reviews

Dead Again (Widescreen)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This movie has a good cast but it is not up to the level like the Hitchcock's movies.I like Emma Thompson and the cast in other movies that were good,but I had a hard time getting into the story.If Alfred Hitchcock was to had seen this movie he may be very angry at the writers and director.

This movie captures the world of Hitchcock and Bogart, in dramatic black and white (with color episodes) in a truly great presentation. Yes, the plot is threadbare, but no more so that those of Hitchcock's best, and irrelevant in any case, as the tension winds tighter and tighter, seeking a violent conclusion. Branagh is his usual self, so completely disappearing into his two roles, both with American accents, that he does not seem the same man who thrilled us in Henry V, delighted us in Much Ado, and took our breath away with Hamlet.

See it on a dark, winter night, with the lights low, and your arms around someone you adore. You will NOT be disappointed!

Mary F. Byrkit
20 January 2004

mfbyrkit@comcast.net

The casting for this movie is great. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson are wonderful as the detective and woman who has no memory. Derek Jacobi is excellent as the hypnotist/antique dealer. Even Robin Williams small part of the Grocer/Ex-Analyst is good. I don't want to give to much away. In a nutshell a lovely lady is being lodged at a church until they can determine her identity. Better that than sending her to a mental institution for her screams of panic and fright that has her propping a chair against her door each night.

When they can no longer take her disruptiveness, the church calls on a detective that will work for gratis. The detective puts out an article in the paper and a two mysterious strangers appear. One to help her recall her identity with hypnosis and another to take advantage of her. When her hypnosis reveals a previous life and a murder, things get very interesting and suspenseful. I have seen this twice on TV and am now planning to buy it. The love story that evolves along with the mystery is very romantic. I think this must be underrated as I am surprised it didn't get more exposure.

This movie stands out for a number of reasons. The method of intermixing black and white and color to show when in time we were was done nicely along with some beautiful camera work. The acting and story is excellent which leads one to wonder why the film didn't receive more recognition. Be sure to at least rent this movie. I think you will see that it is worth adding to anyones DVD collection.

Considering the high caliber of the British cast (Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi), DEAD AGAIN is notable for being so corny.

Mike Church (Branagh) is a Los Angeles private gumshoe whose specialty is tracing missing persons. As a favor, he agrees to discover the identity of Grace (Thompson), an amnesiac who climbed over a fence to take refuge in a Catholic orphanage and who suffers nightmares that keep everyone awake from her screaming. Put under hypnosis by mesmerist/antique dealer Franklyn Madison (Jacobi), Grace reveals memories of the relationship between composer Roman Strauss (Branagh again) and his wife Margaret Strauss (Thompson again). In the late 1940s, Roman was convicted of fatally stabbing Margaret in the neck with a scissors, a crime for which he was executed in 1949. Franklyn drags out an old issue of "Life" magazine, and, golly, isn't it amazing how much Mike and Grace physically resemble Roman and Margaret. Subsequently, Mike goes under hypnosis also and ... well, you get the idea. And every chance the director (Branagh yet again) gets, he points the camera at a big, pointy scissors lying on Mike's living room table waiting for some mischief to get into.

At times, I wondered whether DEAD AGAIN was being presented as a comedy, drama, or parody. The too loud music soundtrack favored either the first or last. But, I finally decided on drama because the actors seemed to be taking the plot sufficiently seriously. Then, they overplayed their parts just to show the audience that they were having a jolly good time. (There were shots of a terrified Grace that almost had me laughing for their absurdity.) The result - a mess. There are some decent plot twists at the end, which, if the script could have evolved with more subtlety, would have resulted in an infinitely better suspense film and not such a silly melodrama.

Branagh, Thompson and Jacobi - what were they thinking?

I saw this movie on the Sci-Fi channel several years ago, and was quite surprised by the quality of the film. The acting is top-notch, and the story is filled with plenty of twists, but not so that it contradicts itself. Many times, I can spot the twist endings in movies before they're revealed, but the twist in "Dead Again" truly took me by surprise. I dinged it a star for a couple of reasons:
1.) There's questionable editing in one portion of the movie (when Church decides to get hypnotized--it feels like there's a scene missing there.)
2.) The climax. Not that the story wasn't concluded in the appropriate manner, it's just that the camera work is distracting to the main action, what with cutting between Church and Grace and their past lives.
Despite these minor flaws, "Dead Again" is my favorite suspense movie.

Dead Again is a brilliant psychological thriller! It's riveting and breathtakingly suspenseful from start to finish, directed with style by Kenneth Branagh. Many imaginative homages to Hitchock--and this is as good as anything the master has directed. Branagh fashions a fascinating puzzle that contains its share of action, romance, dry wit, and (of course) twists & turns. And, unlike most thrillers, there's a distinct element of unpredictability to the latter.

Dead Again is a tale of parallel stories in different time frames. The first, which transpires in post-World War II Los Angeles and is presented entirely through black-and-white flashbacks, relates the tragic romance of Roman and Margaret Strauss (Branagh and his then-wife, Emma Thompson). Roman, a German expatriate, is a world-famous composer and conductor, and Margaret, a Brit relocated to North America, is an up-and-coming musician. They meet when Roman conducts Margaret's orchestra, and it's love at first sight. They are soon married, but their fairytale existence begins to fray. Margaret is suspicious that Roman's housekeeper, Inga (Hanna Schygulla), and her son, Frankie (Gregor Hesse), may be stealing from Roman. He, in turn, is wary of her relationship with a reporter named Gray Baker (Andy Garcia), who appears to be exceeding the bounds of friendly propriety. This all leads to murder (I'm not giving anything away here, since this is revealed during an opening montage of newspaper clippings). Margaret is stabbed to death using a pair of scissors, an expensive anklet is stolen, and Roman is arrested and convicted. He goes to the electric chair claiming to be innocent.

The other part of the story occurs in 1991 Los Angeles, where a solitary private investigator, Mike Church (Branagh), has been requested by a local priest to uncover the identity of a pretty woman (Thompson) who has lost her voice and her memory. (She is given the faux name of Grace.) Mike's friend, newspaper man Pete (Wayne Knight), puts her photograph in the local paper, and the only respondent is a hypnotist/junk dealer named Franklyn Madison (Derek Jacobi), who believes that a trauma from the woman's past life may be causing her mute amnesia. He puts "Grace" under, and she begins to see visions from Roman and Margaret's life. She regains her voice, but not her memory, and, as she and Mike grow closer, she cannot avoid noticing similarities between their relationship and that of Roman and Margaret. As she looks more deeply into the past, she begins to fear Mike, sensing that he could be Roman re-incarnated and that the murder of 45 years ago may be about to happen again. Then, when Mike agrees to be hypnotized, he uncovers a startling secret.

Although Dead Again's story is complicated, Branagh presents it in a clear, straightforward manner that leaves little room for confusion. Each of the plot twists is exposed with suitable buildup, maintaining viewer interest. The characters, both past and present, are remarkably well-developed, and there is a legitimate sense of uncertainty concerning Roman's guilt. He may have gone to the electric chair for Margaret's murder, but did he really commit the deed? Branagh keeps us guessing until the plot demands the disclosure of the truth. When it comes to interweaving the two stories and offering a fulfilling resolution, Branagh and screenwriter Scott Frank do not disappoint us.

This definitely stands out as one of the most intriguing and memorable thrillers of the 1990s. My heart nearly stopped beating during the very intense finale.All in all, a wonderful flick - highly entertaining and intriguing; a great throwback to film noir with a kicky karmic twist. Recommended!

Dead Again was my first exposure to both Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, and it is a film that I am very fond of. I remember seeing it for the first time late one evening when I was home alone; I couldn't have been more than 12 years old at the time. The film really made a big impression on me: the dramatic music, the swirling camera moves, not to mention the genuinly creepy performance by Branagh as Roman Strauss, really scared me. So much so that I didn't sleep that night. Today it doesn't scare me that much - but it is an entertaining film nevertheless. The plot is a classic murder mystery with a supernatural twist. If you can accept the theatrics of the script and Branagh's direction, it is a very exiting and engrossing film; the kind of stylish, noir-thiller which does not get made any longer. Hitchcock would have loved it, I'm sure. And if you have a fondness for old Hollywood-style thillers, Dead Again is certainly worth your money.

Dead Again was my first exposure to both Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, and it is a film that I am very fond of. I remember seeing it for the first time late one evening when I was home alone; I couldn't have been more than 12 years old at the time. The film really made a big impression on me: the dramatic music, the swirling camera moves, not to mention the genuinly creepy performance by Branagh as Roman Strauss, really scared me. So much so that I didn't sleep that night. Today it doesn't scare me that much - but it is an entertaining film nevertheless. The plot is a classic murder mystery with a supernatural twist. If you can accept the theatrics of the script and Branagh's direction, it is a very exiting and engrossing film; the kind of stylish, noir-thiller which does not get made any longer. Hitchcock would have loved it, I'm sure. And if you have a fondness for old Hollywood-style thillers, Dead Again is certainly worth your money.

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 mudering 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 analyse 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 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!