matunos Review of Dead Again

Dead Again (1991)

Disjointed, messy

[6/10 · 22 May 2011]

I caught this on HBO the other night. I have to go against the grain here and say that I found the movie good enough to keep me watching once I had invested some time in it, but barely. Of course it has a (now) star-studded cast, and that wasn't really its weakness.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

I found the plot to be all over the place. It severely tested my suspension of disbelief. Okay, the premise is one of past lives (in which two people are somehow reincarnated into spitting images of their former selves who both live in the same city along with their original antagonists) and hypnotic regression... I can live with that for the sake of the story. But from there the plot continues to test my credulity with increasingly ridiculous, and mostly pointless events and twists:

• Why would Franklyn risk regressing Grace in Mike's presence, thinking that she is was his former victim (hence the whole reason he approached the two himself)? What if she immediately recalled the events as they actually happened? She might not finger his present self, but she would know the truth, the dots would be easy to connect, and the whole plot would be thrown off.

• While there may have been subtle clues dropped as to the actual reincarnation identities beforehand, the whole switcheroo came off to me as a late-breaking addition, and regardless, it ultimately led nowhere. It did not impact the outcome at all and basically seemed to be an excuse to get Robin William's character in another scene. Whoever was who in the past, Franklyn was still the antagonist. And as for the memories, if Grace was actually Roman, then why was she having nightmares of being stabbed in the throat with scissors? Why was she unable to speak at the beginning of the movie, and petrified of letting people into her bedrooms when she slept? Not every dream sequence of hers fell into this category (e.g. only Roman could remember the walk to the electric chair); they're just jumbled up (why would Grace remember rebuking Inga?). To maintain suspension of belief, I need some semblance of internal consistency.

• Speaking of Robin William's character, at first Dr. Carlisle implies that these sorts of past lives are rare, or at least, it is rare to uncover them in hypnosis (or was rare for him to anyway). Yet, later on, he seems to be an expert in the matter, explaining how gender swapping reincarnations happen all the time.

• Mike brought Grace the anklet he recovered from Franklyn's store, and that became a symbol to her of the truth of their identities. But wouldn't the anklet have more of an emotional impact on Mike, seeing as how he was the one who was actually Margaret?

Some lesser plot holes, which are common movie tropes, but (a) I expect better from a director of Branaugh's caliber (even in 1991), and (b) they reach a crescendo right at the climax, making it more of a farce to me than a drama:

• How is it that Mike was shot, unconscious, non-responsive and near death one moment, and the next he is not only alert, but able to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Franklyn?

• Why the hell was Newman delivering a pizza to Grace's apartment in the middle of the night, when earlier it was clear she wasn't expecting anyone? Maybe I missed something there, but that just seemed so random, I didn't know whether to laugh or shout at the screen (I did both).

• The climactic, slow-motion, emotional showdown was just silly.

All in all, I think if the movie were presented as a dramedy, it could have sold me. But it took itself far too seriously despite the numerous "what the?!" moments. Somebody should have switched gears in editing.