Subject: REVIEW: DEAD AGAIN

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: 27 Aug 91 13:44:37 GMT

[Followups directed to rec.arts.movies.]

				  DEAD AGAIN
		       A film review by Mark R. Leeper
			Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper

	  Capsule review:  Two murder mysteries tied together by
     reincarnation.  A great deal of tension is created, but the
     solution of the mystery is not too surprising and an action
     sequence toward the end is just not up to the style of the
     rest of the film.  There is a great product placement,
     however.  Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4).

     When a little-known filmmaker has a film that makes it really big, it
is interesting to see what he or she does with that success.  What is the
next film like?  When suddenly a filmmaker is respected and has a little
more freedom, what does s/he do for an encore?  A little-known George Lucas
had a big hit with AMERICAN GRAFFITI; his next project was to bring comic-
book space opera in a way that did not suffer in the transition.  That was a
success.  Spike Lee's first post-success project was the disappointing
SCHOOL DAZE.  Kenneth Branagh, the director and star of the very successful
HENRY V, has returned with a very stylish mystery and supernatural thriller
with a dream cast.  Branagh stars with his somewhat less well known wife,
Emma Thompson.  But also on hand in smaller roles are Derek Jacobi, Andy
Garcia, Robin Williams, and European actress Hanna Schygulla (of THE
MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN and BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ).  This is an oddly
matched collected of actors and the screenplay hardly gives them all a
chance to make contributions commensurate with their talents.

     A nameless, voiceless woman (played by Thompson) shows up at a church
school.  She has been given sanctuary for a few days, but when she starts
having screaming nightmares, the school asks a detective who is a former
student (played by Branagh) to help find out who the woman really is.  The
search is heading nowhere when Franklyn Madson shows up.  (Madson played by
Jacobi) is a furniture dealer with a talent for hypnotism.  He offers his
services to put the mystery woman in a trance and help her to remember her
previous life.  And what she remembers is indeed a previous life, a life in
which she was someone else.  It was a life that concluded in a famous murder
case of 1949.  What is more, there are indications that her detective friend
may be a reincarnation who was also involved in the same murder.  In the
past lives a composer and his wife (also played by Branagh and Thompson)
have marriage problems that end in the wife murdered and the husband
executed.  At this point, the uncertainties start to pile up.  The
reincarnation may or may not be authentic.  Roman Strauss, the composer, may
or may not have been the murderer.  And, most disturbing, the events may or
may not be fated to happen again, or perhaps the murder will go in the other
direction as a sort of karmic revenge.  The film has a  complex plot and
leaves unanswered the biggest question: does the film really make sense or
not?  Does the ending really explain all we have seen?  Like JACOB'S LADDER,
most of what you can get out of this film you get thinking about it
afterwards.

     The photography is stylishly done, particularly in the scenes set in
1949.  They are done in monochrome, but the blacks and whites are just
slightly tinted.  At least that is the style element easy to identify.  And
the credits intercut with newspaper clippings about the murder opens the
film with a feel almost like that of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.

     Oh, one more thing.  The best touch in this film is the product
placement.  This film *does* have a product placement.  And as it happens it
is the best product placement you will see in a film this year.  It kind of
makes up for all the bad product placements we have had this summer.

     Overall the production values and the acting talent are better than the
story.  And the story is better than it seems at the end of the film.  I
would still give DEAD AGAIN only a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.  With this
cast it should have been better.

					Mark R. Leeper
					att!mtgzy!leeper
					[email-masked]