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| Dead Again | ||||||
| The main cast list is this (in no particular order) : Robin Williams, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Wayne Knight (the guy who played Newman on Seinfeld), Derek Jacobi, and Andy Garcia. Therefore this movie must be a work of genius, which of course it is. It's a real pity that nobody except for hard-core fans of the cast members has ever seen this, because the plot really is good. A young woman (Emma Thompson) who cannot or will not speak except for a single word shows up at a convent (or someplace like that-I have to admit I'm not sure) and the church officials don't really know what to do with her, so they hand her off to a detective (Kenneth Branagh). When he puts her picture in the paper, one of the many who respond is a hypnotist (Derek Jacobi). When he gets her to talk, things get very interesting very fast. Her first regressed memories are of a past life in the 40s as the wife of a famous composer. The catch-and the reason she didn't live beyond the 1940s even though she was young-is that her husband killed her with a pair of scissors. Some questions this raises : if this young woman is the reincarnation of the murdered wife, then is she in danger from the reincarnation of her husband? Were the husband and wife really reincarnated? What is Grace's real identity? Did the husband really kill her? Just how many pairs of scissors will the filmmakers show before the end of the movie? By the way, the answer to the last one is, enough pairs that you will never look at them the same way again. This is generally billed as a thriller, though it has a pretty big sappy love story aspect. Of course, if you're like me, that just makes it better. There's some absolutely gorgeous camera work throughout, especially in the first hypnotizing scene-between the camera and Derek Jacobi's voice I almost got hypnotized myself. Jacobi is perfect, with even more ingratiating charm than as Claudius in Hamlet. Do not buy a used car from this man. I would greatly recommend watching this late at night in a dark basement with at least one friend. It's a damn good party movie. Actually, I guess that depends on your friends. main / about me / shakespeare / people / movies / books / random / jokes star trek / x-files / writing / quotes / poetry / tv shows / musicals / contact me |
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