Review of Dead Again (1991) by Jenni P — 17 Mar 2011

This is a really, really enjoyable and stylish thriller. Kenneth Branagh made this crazy film noir shortly after making his Henry V, and while this movie is extremely different from Henry V, it's just as awesome if not more so. It's a mash-up of film noir, romance, and supernatural thriller that I think works quite well. It has a hell of an opening sequence, and delivers on that scene's promise by the end of the movie.

The film revolves around two stories, one set in 1991 Los Angeles and shot in color, and the other set in 1949 and shot in shadowy, evocative black-and-white. The two stories connect in ways I won't reveal here, but suffice to say that they are gripping, and some of the plot twists literally made my jaw drop. It's a great tale, and while some of the later twists are quite absurd when you think about them, the movie wove its spell over me so expertly that I didn't notice or care about the absurdity.

Kenneth Branagh is excellent in two roles in the film, and plays them very differently from each other. In one part, he's a European opera composer in the 1940s, and he seems to have put on his Shakespeare voice for that part. In the other, he's a wise-guy 1990s private eye who speaks casually. It shows you how talented Branagh is that he can nail two such different parts in the same movie. Emma Thompson is just as good in her two parts, as a musician in the 1940s and a woman suffering amnesia in the present. Derek Jacobi is very effective as a mysterious hypnotist, and Andy Garcia has a decent role as a 1940s journalist. The movie also gets bonus points for having a very funny Wayne Knight (you know, Newman from Seinfeld).

Don't let anyone tell you about plot details if you haven't already seen this movie. Just go in with no preconceptions and let the movie work its fever-dream magic on you. Like Shutter Island, this is a movie I want to revisit at a later date.