Movie · 1991 · Mystery, Thriller, Romance · 1h 47m · R · English
Curator score: 5.0/10 (32.2K ratings)
How many times can you die for love?
Overview
In 1949, composer Roman Strauss is executed for the murder of his wife. In 1990s Los Angeles, a detective comes across a mute amnesiac woman who is somehow linked to the Strauss murder.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.0/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 66
TMDB: 6.4/10
Director
Kenneth Branagh
Production
Mirage Enterprises
Cast
Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Andy Garcia, Wayne Knight, Robin Williams, Richard Easton, Jo Anderson, Hanna Schygulla, Campbell Scott, Christine Ebersole, Vasek Simek, Gregor Hesse, John Gould Rubin, Miriam Margolyes, Lois Hall, Gordana Rashovich, Erik Kilpatrick, Raymond Cruz
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, twist-heavy neo-noir with a strong central hook, campy melodrama, and enough visual flair to keep the absurdity entertaining. It’s uneven and sometimes overcooked, but the romance, atmosphere, and elaborate mystery make it a worthwhile watch if you enjoy stylish, self-serious thrillers.
Best for
neo-noir fans
viewers who like campy melodrama
mystery lovers who enjoy big twists
fans of romantic thrillers
people interested in early Kenneth Branagh
Skip if
you want a tightly controlled thriller
you dislike soap-opera intensity
you prefer modern pacing and restraint
you’re allergic to camp or theatrical performances
Overview
Dead Again is a knowingly overheated mystery that treats reincarnation, hypnosis, and murder as if they belong in the same breathless sentence. The result is a movie that can feel ridiculous on paper but often works in motion, thanks to its noirish mood, romantic charge, and a director willing to push every emotion a little too far.
Worth noting
It’s not especially subtle, and some of the period makeup and tonal swings are part of the fun rather than the polish. But the film has a real sense of play: it wants to be seductive, lurid, and a little unhinged, and that gives it a distinct identity among early-90s studio thrillers.
Bottom line
If you’re in the mood for a twist machine with old Hollywood shadows, LA sleaze, and a melodramatic streak, it delivers. If you need airtight logic or cool detachment, it may feel overblown. Either way, it’s memorable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (3★) · 493 likes
De Palma directing the exact same script would've been a 5-star movie
Luke Pauli (3.5★) · 254 likes
This film may well feature the WORST old people make-up effects in the history of the cinema. Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again is so gloriously camp, melodramatic and cheesy, that it's almost impossible to dislike. The flashback scenes are shot like a mixture of film noir and those classy perfume ads you see on TV. The acting's a mixed bag; Emma Thompson is luminous, Branagh is inconsistent, Robin Williams kills it in a small part. As a film, it's very histrionic, very dramatic, almost to soap opera levels at times, but I enjoyed it. Slightly bonkers but fun.
megan (4★) · 168 likes
FUCK IT UP KENNETH
Josh Lewis (3★) · 152 likes
Ludicrously twisty LA neo-noir script by Scott Frank filled with eccentric character detail and bizarrely organized around amnesia, hypnosis, reincarnation and a genuinely hilarious amount of scissor imagery/violence. As others have noted, this is the kind of thing that’s just begging for the neo-Hitchcockian stylistic excess of a De Palma to match its absurd energy, but honestly it settles well enough with Branagh whose penchant for self-serious operatics (and lack of tonal control of them) sort of works in the… more Ludicrously twisty LA neo-noir script by Scott Frank filled with eccentric character detail and bizarrely organized around amnesia, hypnosis, reincarnation and a genuinely hilarious amount of scissor imagery/violence. As others have noted, this is the kind of thing that’s just begging for the neo-Hitchcockian stylistic excess of a De Palma to match its absurd energy, but honestly it settles well enough with Branagh whose penchant for self-serious operatics (and lack of tonal control of them) sort of works in the… more
Joe (4★) · 111 likes
Unavoidably my shit, I love the way this works as an extremely convincing imitation of an adaptation of some impenetrable crime novel, even the big third act twist makes more sense on the hypothetical page than it does onscreen. Overbearing and flabby but I can't help becoming entranced. At one point Robin Williams calls Kenneth Branagh "thumb-dick."