Dead Again is a 1991 psychological thriller/neo-noir directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Branagh and his then-wife Emma Thompson. Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi and Robin Williams are also featured.
Plot summary
The film begins with opening credits intercut with pans across newspaper clippings about a society murder committed by composer Roman Strauss. Most of the articles were written by Gray Baker (Andy Garcia), who visited Roman Strauss on the day of his execution. The gates of a mansion in the past fade into the same gates in the present day. As the main narrative begins, we meet Mike Church (Branagh), a smart-alecky Los Angeles private investigator whose jobs usually involve running down deadbeats and finding missing persons. One day he's called in by the priest in charge of the orphanage where Mike was raised, to help identify a woman (Thompson) who showed up at their gates (the same gates as in the black and white scenes in the past) in a state of shock. The woman is unable to speak and seems to have no recollection of who she is or what happened to her.
After making a few inquiries, Mike takes the woman, whom he calls Grace, to stay at his apartment, where he discovers she has a terror of scissors. Over the course of a few days, the two of them uncover clues to her identity, but find nothing concrete; Mike finds himself attracted to Grace and is somewhat protective of her. Grace regains her voice during a hypnotic session with Franklyn (Jacobi), an antique dealer who claims she is having a "past-life" experience. She is made to recall a couple who lived during the 1940s, a famous composer and his pianist wife, as if she were part of their history. Franklyn finds a LIFE magazine identifying the couple as actual people, Roman and Margaret. Margaret was brutally murdered, and Roman was tried and executed for her murder.
As Mike and Grace fall in love, Grace is upset by the similarities of their courtship to that of Roman and Margaret. Grace becomes afraid of Mike and is unconvinced by his assertions that he's "not Roman." Franklyn hypnotizes Mike, leading to the revelation that Mike is not the reincarnation of Roman, but of Margaret. Now, Mike becomes afraid of Grace. Mike consults with Cozy Carlisle (Robin Williams), a disgraced psychiatrist who lost his license due to having sex with female patients. Grace consults with Franklyn; each is advised to kill the other. Meanwhile, Mike's friend at the newspaper, Pete (Wayne Knight), uncovers the true identity of "Grace." She is Amanda Sharpe, an artist. He takes Amanda and Franklyn to her apartment, where she is stunned to discover that she is an artist who is obsessed with scissors, using them in every conceivable way in her art. To make her feel safer, Franklyn gives Amanda an antique gun from his shop.
Mike finds Gray Baker, old and decrepit, at a nursing home. Baker says he no longer thinks Roman killed Margaret, and says that the housekeeper, Inga, would know. After the murder, the housekeeper moved out and opened an antiques shop that is now run by her son, Frankie, a disturbed boy who was a stutterer and kleptomaniac. Thus, Mike comes to believe that Inga killed Margaret. Mike visits Inga, who explains that it was her son, Frankie, who killed Margaret. Inga had always been in love with Roman, after she saved his life while they fled war-torn Europe. After Margaret married Roman, Inga was treated coldly. Gray Baker, who was attracted to Margaret, instilled suspicions in Margaret that Roman had indeed killed his first wife, and that he was having a sexual affair with Inga. But Roman refuses to fire Inga, despite Margaret's pleading, which makes her more suspicious. Inga is unhappy about her treatment, and tells her son Frankie one night. Frankie, then still a young boy, kills Margaret with scissors (to her throat), believing that this will solve his mother's problems. After having heard Inga's story, Mike (realizing that Franklyn is in fact Frankie Madison) leaves and races to Amanda's apartment; Frankie in the meantime arrives and kills his mother (Inga by smothering).
A distressed Mike, desperate to save his love from murder at the hands of Frankie once again, breaks into Amanda's apartment. She, carefully prepared by Frankie to believe Mike to be a crazed killer, shoots him as he is trying to explain to her the truth about Roman and Margaret. Then Frankie shows up. Amanda (knowing who he now really is) tries to shoot him but the gun misfires. Frankie (gloating over said jammed gun) slaps Amanda unconscious and prepares to shoot her (in the mouth, so it looks like suicide), but Mike rouses himself from his state of shock following his shooting, and stabs Frankie with the scissors (placed in his hand by Frankie to incriminate him). Pete shows up with a pizza and tries to prevent Mike from what he thinks he's doing — killing Amanda — but he quickly realizes that it is Frankie who intends to do the killing (who now has got hold of Mike's gun). After a brief Mexican standoff, Frankie is stabbed in the back with the scissors (making him discharge all the bullets into the air), by Amanda. Enraged by this, a now totally unhinged Frankie (whose stutter has now returned) removes said scissors, to then lunge at her and Mike with it, but Mike moves a giant sculpture made of scissors directly into his path, Frankie, who cannot stop from colliding into it, is fatally impaled on them. Roman and Margaret kiss, and the scene fills with color as the shot fades to Mike and Grace kissing.
Production
The movie was filmed entirely in color. After test screenings, it was decided to use black and white for the "past" sequences to help clear up audience confusion. The final frame, once the mystery is solved, fades from black and white to color.
The negative of the final frame was flipped to match the present day lovers to the doomed 1940s newlyweds they embodied; i.e., Margaret dissolves into Mike, and Roman dissolves into Grace.
When the audience first meets Mike Church, he's seated in his car, which is parked on the wrong side of the street. While most people believe this is because Kenneth Branagh is from the United Kingdom (where cars are driven on the left-hand side of the road), it is actually because behind him are a number of skyscrapers that he, as the director, wanted included in the background.
In addition to the dual roles played by Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, actress Jo Anderson and the film's composer Patrick Doyle both play small dual parts, appearing in the present-day and 1940s sequences.
Branagh has said that at the time he made this film (and still, to some extent) he was very interested in the technique of uninterrupted takes, and several can be seen throughout the movie. Also note sequences such as the first hypnosis sequence at the Laughing Duke, which features an extremely complicated camera shot in 360 degrees, which involved a great deal of precise timing and technical faculty. Branagh noted that this relatively short scene was shot perhaps fifteen times, taking all day.
According to the director's commentary on the DVD edition of the movie, the film has numerous in-jokes. For instance, a date seen in one of the newspaper clippings is actually Branagh's birthday, and Roman Strauss' prisoner number is the date of the Battle of Agincourt (Branagh's previous film, which had just launched his career at the time he undertook Dead Again, was Henry V).
Reception
The movie was released on August 23, 1991 and was #1 at the U.S. box office for three weeks.
This is one of the first screenplays by Scott Frank who would also write Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster's directorial debut), Get Shorty, Minority Report, Out Of Sight and The Lookout (his directorial debut).
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