A mute woman (Emma Thompson) with amnesia is found by the nuns at an orphanage. She's haunted by nightmares. They recruit private investigator Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh). He brings her to Pete Dugan (Wayne Knight) for a picture in the papers. The County hospital is overcrowded and he brings her to stay with him. Franklyn Madson (Derek Jacobi) offers to help after reading the newspaper. He's a psychic hypnotist and his sessions reveals her past life as pianist Margaret Strauss and her husband Roman Strauss who was on death row for her murder. There is also Margaret's friend Gray Baker (Andy Garcia). Doctor Cozy Carlisle (Robin Williams) tells them treating a patient with her past life. Doug (Campbell Scott) claims to know her but is quickly found to be lying.

It's a movie hearkening back to old Hollywood and even in the style of Hitchcock. It's an intriguing style. The old story in black and white is less compelling for some reason. There are times when it's not as sharp as one wishes. Campbell Scott's karate kick is almost comical. There are opportunities for real tension but one can almost see the strings being pulled. It's a movie that I would like to love more than in reality.

Branagh's ambitious past-life thriller is very much a product of its time, and seen today it feels rather dated: there are cheesy haircuts and outfits galore. Plus, the viewer never really believes Branagh's American accent, which remains distracting throughout the movie. Yet DEAD AGAIN succeeds where other movies fail: it feels original for the most part, and it possesses enough inventiveness on the part of Branagh the director to make it a fairly engaging viewing experience. The film has many overblown moments where good ol' Ken emulates Hitchcock and the like, especially in the use of some silly slow-motion towards the end. But the black-and-white sequences set during the '40s are pretty good and, although fairly slow-paced, the film manages to retain the interest throughout.

The casting is also pretty decent; Branagh and Thompson are here teamed up again, and both of them are required to act in many different styles. Derek Jacobi, another regular, is excellent as the stuttering hypnotist, and God, doesn't he look creepy without the beard? There are other stars too who make an impact, from Robin Williams' foul-mouthed supermarket worker (grimy and paranoid) to Wayne Knight (JURASSIC PARK) as Branagh's buddy. One rather odd thing is the last twenty minutes of the film, which finishes up the mystery and drama side of the story after offering a nice twist, and becomes standard psycho-thriller territory, along the lines of THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE and all the others that were popular at the time. The diverse range of elements and the passion put into this movie make it a standalone piece of cinema.

Now I don't think Dead Again is a classic or a masterpiece, but I did find it very entertaining. One flaw with the film is that it is a little too long, by about four or so minutes. The other flaw I had was that I felt the ending was overdone, though not as overdone as the remake of The Wicker Man thank goodness. Still Dead Again is stylish, dark and entertaining, with stunning cinematography and film noir and Hitchockian elements, eccentric plotting, the usual twists and turns and a good script.

Another strong asset was the score, the opening theme was very bombastic and haunting. The direction is decent, and the acting was fine. Kenneth Branagh acquits himself well in a very difficult dual role, one of the cynical LA private detective and the other of the composer executed for the murder of his wife back in 1949, while Emma Thompson is terrific also in a dual role as an amnesiac woman obsessed with scissors and is suffering from nightmares of somebody else's life and the composer's wife.

Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams and Wayne Knight are also fine in their supporting roles, Jacobi especially. Overall, this is definitely worth watching even with its flaws. 8/10 Bethany Cox