Dead AgainAfter directing and starring in one of the best recent Shakespearean adaptations, Henry V, Kenneth Branagh turned his attention to another master storyteller - Alfred Hitchcock. Dead Again, while not a remake of one of Hitchcock's works, is still full to the brim with all things Hitchcock. There have been a lot of imitators out there, but no one has come close to actually re-creating the Master of Macabre's style as closely as Branagh does here.
During the late 1940s, headlines are blazing about the murder of Margaret Strauss (Emma Thompson) and the conviction of her husband, Roman. In the present day, Grace (also played by Thompson) appears at an orphanage with no memory and no voice. A private detective Mike Church (Branagh) and an antique dealer/hypnotist Mr. Madson (Derek Jacobi) try to help her reclaim her memory and discover her connection to the half-century old murder.
The movie's strengths are many. First off, the acting is solid, with Thompson and Branagh doing good work in double roles, and carrying off their various accents successfully (and I was reminded when watching Dead Again how much chemistry these two performers had onscreen and it kind of depresses me about their divorce all over again). They also have great backup support from Jacobi, Andy Garcia, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams as a former therapist who gives Mike Church strange advice from time to time.
Other pieces are just as good - the score by Patrick Doyle is propulsive and powerful. The script by Scott Frank is fun and old-fashioned in a good way - with little touches of humor throughout. But most importantly, this production crew does a great job with the mystery. This is a genuinely clever mystery, and Branagh and Frank genuinely keep you guessing until the end. Some clever folks will be able to guess the bad guy, but they certainly won't be able to make all the connections and there is one great twist that I bet no one will see coming. But the twists aren't cheats, and they aren't there just to screw with the audience. These plot points are earned and if you watch the movie a second time, you will see how well they are actually set up.
If the movie has a problem, it is the action. To this day, I have not seen Branagh as a director successfully pull off a straight action scene (Update on this point: Branagh actually pulls this off successfully on Thor). Dead Again doesn't have one, but two poorly done action scenes - I'm willing to give the first a pass. It may feature one of the silliest karate kicks I've ever seen (that doesn't even come close to hitting its target, who still flops on the ground in pain), but at least it follows one of the cooler reveals in the film. But the second action scene, the climax of the movie, no less, is just a mess - full of silly slow motion, weird editing, and an instance of someone getting shot in the leg but still running around like nothing happened. Ugh. More on that below.
But other than the silly ending, this is a fun movie, full of atmosphere and foreboding in the best Hitchcockian style. There will never be another Hitchcock; he was one of a kind. But I would love for Branagh to take another swing at the genre.
SPOILER: I want to complain about the ending again! Aside from the whole getting shot, but still running around and fighting issue, we have some true bizarreness at the end. So the bad guy runs at Branagh with a pair of scissors. He runs towards the camera in scary slow motion - so slow in fact that Branagh has time to drag an extremely heavy sculpture with giant scissors pointing up in the path of the attacker and then has time to run back to the other side of the room and hug Emma Thompson while the attacker charges into the sculpture and impales himself. The only way that works is if the movie was not going in slow motion, but that the bad guy was literally running that slow. And if he were blind. Because at some point he would have noticed that he was not running at Branagh any more, but was running towards the business end of a giant scissor. So he would have to be blind. And also stupid. Yes, he would have to be stupid.
You get the point. The action scene just sucks. Anyway. SPOILER OVER.
MVP: Tough call here. Patrick Doyle's explosive score is certainly the movie's most consistent element. But I think I am still going to have to give it to Branagh. The exception of the above mentioned action scenes, Branagh does a terrific job directing, filling the film with bravura shots and long takes that support the film's strong performers. And as I mentioned above, Branagh has managed to create a love letter to Hitchcock (one of my favorite directors) that actually feels like Hitchcock. Too many imitators think it is the suspense and horror that made Hitchcock a master. But that's not it at all. His brilliance was in the details, and the power of his suspense often lay in his careful camera technique and odd sense of humor. It's these details that Branagh picks up on. And I think the old Master of Macabre would have pleased as punch.
TRIVIA: Robin Williams didn't want his name in the opening credits because he didn't want audiences to think the film was a comedy.
BEST LINE: Roman Strauss: What I believe, Mr. Baker, is that this is all faaarrr from over."
