This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Dead Again (1991) has the feel of a Hitchcockian thriller and its supernatural-tinged romance more than echoes the master's own Vertigo. However, there's something about it that is just lacking. The acting is well done, though it does take a while to get used to Branagh's phony American accent (he sounds a lot like Raphael on the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon). The music is lovely and the other technical aspects are fine.It's the story itself. There are so many twists, which make DA ideal for the first viewing, but not so ideal for re-visitation. The character the private eye and his lady love wasn't captivating enough to keep one 100% invested.Good for one watch, but like a roller coaster ride, once is enough for this lifetime or the next.

This movie is about dual parallel stories occurring in Los Angeles in the late forties and again four decades later in the early nineties. The segments that make up 1948-1949 portion are in black and white flashbacks, and focus on the tragic love affair of music composer and conductor Roman (Kenneth Branagh) and pianist Margaret Strauss (Emma Thompson). The opening montage is made of compiled newspaper headlines and clippings that scream about the murder of Margaret (MURDER . . . TRIAL . . . GUILTY . . .). We quickly learn that Roman was convicted and executed for the scissor-murder of his wife. Roman goes to the electric chair proclaiming his innocence. Margaret had been suspicious that ominous housekeeper Inga (Hanna Schygulla) and her strange and stuttering son Frankie (Gregor Hesse) may have stolen jewelry items from Roman. But Inga had saved Roman from Hitler, so she kept her position. In turn, Roman was unhappy that his wife seemed to have taken an inordinate amount of interest with newspaper writer Gray Baker (Andy Garcia). The early 1990s part involves private investigator Mike Church (Branagh again), who has been asked by Father Timothy (Richard Easton), a priest, to unearth the identity of a woman (Thompson again) who has lost both her voice and her memory. She experiences terrible nightmares. Church had intended to drop off Thompson at the local madhouse, but after seeing conditions there he decided to put her up for a night or two. He gives her a faux-name, "Grace." Helpful newspaper man Piccolo Pete (Wayne Knight) puts her photograph in the local rag. Peculiar hypnotist (and antique dealer on the side!), Franklyn Madison (Derek Jacobi) responds quickly. Now Franklyn believes that a trauma from the woman's past is causing mute amnesia. When Franklyn, with permission from Mike Church, places Grace under hypnotism, she begins to have visions from the 1940s, i.e., Roman and Margaret's life (before Grace was born). Grace soon regains her voice, but not her memory. As she begins to grow closer to Mike, she notices the similarities between their lives and the previous ones of Roman and Margaret. As she looks even deeper into her past, she begins to fear Mike, feeling that – like Roman earlier – he will eventually kill her (as he is apparently Roman re-incarnated). But did Roman really kill Margaret? At a critical point Church tells Grace, "I would never hurt you, MARGARET" (Freudian slip), Grace screams right away. Cozy Carlisle (Robin Williams), ex-psychiatrist turned supermarket worker, soon warns Mike that he should indeed kill Grace before she kills him because fate is what it is. There are similarities between past and present lives. Reincarnation also means that one may return in a different gender: Grace could be Roman while Mike may be Margaret (heavy stuff here)! After researching, Piccolo Pete tells Grace that her real name is Amanda Sharp, an artist who lost her memory after being mugged. (Note the Salvador Dali copy of his famous painting in her spacious apartment ("The Persistence of Memory"). After, when Mike agrees to be hypnotized, he uncovers a startling secret. When Mike later locates the aged and decrepit Gray in a wretched condition at a nursing facility, he is told that Inga the housekeeper knew everything that went on in the Strauss household. When asked about her and son Frankie, Gray says "They had opened some sort of shop . . . AN-tiques." Mike's utter surprise sets up the denouement. Under Patrick Doyle's rousing musical score, there is a grand operatic clash with slow-motion shots and with cuts between the (black and white) past and (color) present times. It is a bit pretentious, though (but dig those gigantic scissors!).Yes, the story is complicated and relies on coincidence but it is a good tale, and very inventive. Each of the plot twists is given suitable build-up that avoids viewer confusion. One gets so swept away with the yarn and buys into the story that he/she ignores the coincidences (like Mike's meeting with Grace/Amanda in the first place). The character development is at a high level, while the sets and scenes are imaginatively well-done. Acting performances are first-rate. Derek Jacobi (of "I, Claudius" fame) is excellent as the hypnotist with a sinister agenda. An innovative touch occurs when he puts folks under not just to obtain information about the past, but also to pry from subconscious minds the whereabouts of certain antiques that may somehow fetch him big dollars. Robin Williams, as Cozy Carlisle, believing that the world has thoroughly porked him, leaves no room for anything but the blackest of humor in his top performance. Kenneth Branagh directed, and he and his then wife Emma Thompson shared the lead roles of both eras effectively, with the nod going to the latter. Matthew Leonetti's cinematography is effective at capturing moods. Whether or not you want believe in reincarnation does not matter (this writer does not) as the film's entertainment value is high. But you need to pay close attention to the story!

Mike Church is a private detective who specialises in finding missing people. He takes on the case of a woman who he calls Grace. She is suffering from amnesia and keeps having nightmares involving the murder of a pianist, Margaret, by her husband Roman Strauss in the late 1940s. Church seeks the help of an antiques dealer with the gift of hypnosis. The hypnosis sessions begin to reveal some surprises that connect Mike and Grace, and reveal the truth about the murder in the 1940s.....Branagh attempts to do a Hitchcock, but with all the red herrings and barmy narrative, it ends up more like a Brian DePalma homage, which isn't a negative, because DePalma is a genius.But Hitchcock was more of a straight director, more or less getting to the point, and never really made you guess of who, why, and where.Here it's very twisty and turny right up until the last moment, and more or less every character introduced into the film is suspect.But it's expertly done, and looks fantastic, and even though Branagh is miscast as Mike, he excels in the directors chair and as Strauss. The black and white scenes are the best thing here, and have a really Kubrickian element to them.All in all, if you like whodunnits, this is a little treat that hasn't really been seen.

Rough California detective Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) takes on the case of a mysterious woman (then wife Emma Thompson) who can't seem to remember who she is. With the help of a doctor (Derek Jacobi) she comes to realize she might be the reincarnation of Margaret Strauss (also Thompson) who was supposedly murdered by her husband (Branagh) back in 1949. As she starts remembering more it seems someone is setting out to kill her--but who and why.Intriguing mystery/thriller with supernatural touches. The script is good and the story has many twists and turns. They do give you clues to who is doing it along the way so you might be able to figure it out. However I couldn't when I first saw it in 1991 and loved it. I STILL love it even though I knew how it was going to end. The acting is great. Branagh (who also directed) completely buries his Irish accent and is lots of fun. Thompson is just fantastic in her role. They were also great in the flashback sequences which are in gorgeous black and white. Jacobi is good too and having fun in his role. Also in small roles are Campbell Scott (blue eyes blazing) and Robin Williams in a rare dramatic role. A fun, intricate movie well worth catching. I give it an 8.