Dead Again is an enjoyably extravagant romantic mystery, carried by Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson’s chemistry. The plotting asks for more indulgence than it earns, but the romance survives the complications.
Dead Again commits itself to murder, hypnosis and reincarnation with a seriousness that makes the extravagance more enjoyable. Kenneth Branagh directs as though there were nothing remotely embarrassing about asking a romance to stretch across different lives. We recommend it to anyone who likes a thriller with large feelings and little restraint, with a warning about Scott Frank’s tangled plotting. The film needs considerable indulgence, and the performances do much of the work of earning it.
Branagh plays Roman Strauss and Mike Church, while Emma Thompson plays Margaret Strauss and Grace. The double casting gives us plenty to consider, but the actors do not let the puzzle overwhelm their scenes together. They have a warmth that makes the attraction worth following for its own sake. That matters when reincarnation is involved: without some believable desire, the business of who these people might have been would be a rather dry exercise.
Matthew F. Leonetti’s cinematography separates the eras through black-and-white and colour, then finds visual similarities between them. We felt a small thrill at the shifts into black-and-white, because those similarities make the past seem uncomfortably close. The pictures make reincarnation seem plausible before the screenplay has finished explaining it. Branagh allows the black-and-white passages their theatricality, and Leonetti’s work makes that decision pay.
Production designer Tim Harvey gives the drama similarly exaggerated surroundings, occasionally to the point where the people have to compete with the décor. A little less would have helped. Patrick Doyle’s score is loud and emphatic, and its insistence helps make the romantic stakes felt. It can press too hard, but a discreet accompaniment would scarcely suit a film this willing to make a scene.
Peter E. Berger’s brisk editing keeps the shifts between eras lively and allows suspense to build without letting the mechanics entirely take over. The pace matters because there is plenty here that might invite an awkward question if left sitting for too long. For much of the running time, the next complication arrives while the previous one is still entertaining us. His cutting supplies much of the film’s nervous energy.
The trouble is that the screenplay’s implausibilities do not all become more persuasive through sheer enthusiasm. Some of the questions Frank raises remain annoyingly unclear, even allowing for a mystery’s right to keep us guessing. Branagh’s appetite for an emphatic effect can make this worse, giving another flourish more attention than a piece of reasoning deserves. A little more clarity would have helped the romance as well as the mystery.
This sort of romantic thriller would be in worse trouble if its lovers left us indifferent. Branagh and Thompson make us care enough to forgive quite a lot, although anyone expecting a rigorously worked-out mystery should be warned. At 107 minutes, it has the sense not to turn all this into a prolonged test of patience. Choose it for an evening when a love affair involving reincarnation sounds promising rather than like grounds for an early night.
