# Dead Again (1991)

### reviewed by
Ted Prigge

    DEAD AGAIN (1991)
    A Film Review by Ted Prigge
    Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge

Director: Kenneth Branagh Writer: Scott Frank Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Andy Garcia, Hanna Schygulla, Wayne Knight, Robin Williams, Campbell Scott, Christine Ebersole, Miriam Margolyes, Obba Babatundé, Patrick Doyle

"Dead Again" is a prime example of a film that is filled to the brim with energy, bravaura, and unbridled passion, a film that speaks only in broad strokes and leaves one feeling completely satisfied by its wild conclusion. Films like this are seldom made today, but used to flourish in the past, and that's why this film feels like a huge breath of fresh air: it's one of those old fashioned suspense classics that Alfred Hitchcock used to make that plows ahead with a wonderfully melodramatic story that anyone can enjoy, and never apologises for any of it.

Of course, this is no surprise because it's by director/actor/all-around-Shakespeare-guy Kenneth Branagh, one of the most energetic and visual directors working today, the guy who can take a four-hour completely-by-the-book adaptation of "Hamlet" and make it fly by in what seems like a regular film. But that it's a sophomore effort is even more amazing. Right away, Branagh introduced himself as a director who is completely confident in what he's doing, and surprisingly just as competent. "Dead Again" may be his homage to Hitchcock and perhaps even Welles, but it has Branagh written all over it.

The story is one that Hitchcock probably would have loved to have made but died before he ever got around to it. It deals with past lives, past loves, and a kind of psychic energy that allows wrongs to resurface, either to be corrected or made worse. The film deals with a modern-day L.A. detective, Mike Church (Branagh himself, this time equipped with a killer American accent), who is hired by his old church (ha ha) to find out the past of a woman (Branagh's then-wife, Emma Thompson, also equipped with an American accent) who has come to them in a state of amnesia, the only clue to her past being that she has nightmares every night and wakes up screaming. Branagh attempts to help her out, all the while falling in love with her.

His investigation leads him to meet a hypnotist named Franklyn Madison (Derek Jacobi, one of the best living Shakesperean actors), who offers his help in finding out her past, and ends up discovering a past life, where she was Margaret Strauss, the wife of a composer named Roman Strauss, who was found guilty of killing her with a pair of scissors, and put to death. The film ends up juxtaposing back and forth between the present and the past, the latter being shown in black and white, and featuring Branagh and Thompson as the ill-fated couple. We learn of a bit of dysfunction within their marriage: Thompson becomes ever tired of his long-time servants, a woman and her son, who helped Roman escape from the Germans during World War II; and Roman begins to suspect Margaret of longing for another man, a detective named Gray Baker (Andy Garcia).

The film continues on this path just like a good old Hitch film, introducing numerous twists that are not only shocking, but plausible as well (if you can swallow all of the past lives stuff), including one twist that is so clever that you just have to give it a good laugh. The past eventually catches up to the present, and all of the loose ends are fought over in the wonderfully theatrical conclusion, a sequence that any fan of suspense will take great delight in.

Although told seriously, Branagh allows lots of humor to pour in, himself giving a wonderfully cool and laid-back performance that causes the viewer to easily like him. He even gives roles out to Robin Williams and Wayne Knight (who used to be Newman, if you didn't know that already), both who give a healthy amount of support to the big picture. This is, after all, a Hitchcockian film, and the one thing that Hitchcock films weren't is unhumorous. He allowed tons of humor to flow in, to make the audience relax a bit, then he would hit them with the suspense. Branagh has this down cold. 's almost bizarre to see a film that is this confident in everything it does since most films today often pussy foot around and try and make up for things that it does. "Dead Again" is a film that just wants to be heard. The first thing we see in this film is a newspaper with the huge headline "MURDER," and the last thing we see is two people in a passionate embrace. Branagh is so confident in everything he does from start to finish that multiple viewings often result in discovering many little things that are almost impossible to notice the first time because you're so wrapped up in the story. Even the bit twist towards the end is carefully backed up if you examine all the acting and all the little things that go into it. It's confidence like this that makes for great movies, that makes you forget about many of the little problems this film may have, and for the entire run of the film just manages to pull you into the movie, make you laugh, scare you a little bit, and then dump you right back into your seat with a big grin on your face. If only all movies were as wonderfully exuberant as this one.

    MY RATING (out of 4): ****

Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/

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