Alphabetical Movie - Dead Again
Dead Again is a movie I had on VHS and enjoyed enough to watch several times over the years. Since I watched it last, however, I've watched a whole ton of Hitchcock and classic film noir and as a result, I found my admiration for this film rather diminished.
The problem, I think, is that Branaugh is definitely using Hitchcock and noir as his inspiration and after watching the films that inspired him, I can see how this one is a little more slick and a little less complicated.
I still enjoy the film, of course, I can just see the cracks a little more clearly now.
The central conceit of the film - that we are dealing with the consequences of a crime committed in the past lives of the main characters - a nice plot device, I think. It allows the film to present us with parallel story lines that converge in ways that are at least a little bit unexpected.
The film doesn't really give the viewer a way to figure out the central mystery but how one feels about that depends on the viewer. Do you like the opportunity to figure out the mystery before the characters do or do you enjoy being surprised by the narrative?
For me, I think that it depends on the movie. Is the surprise earned or is it cheap? Can I re-watch the film and see that the narrative allows for that interpretation of events or do I simply come away thinking the filmmaker took a cheap short cut rather than trying to tie the story together in a convincing way?
Dead Again earns the plot twists. One can be annoyed that a movie doesn't telegraph a twist but the twist feels natural in the wake of what has come before.
Where it falls a little short in comparison to the Hitchcock films it is aping is in the way it feels slightly antiseptic. It feels like the film is copying the world of Hitchcock without residing there. The characters feel just a little less natural. The situation a little too contrived. The narrative a little too clean.
I would imagine that a modern audience will respond to Dead Again better than they will respond to Vertigo or Strangers on a Train but I don't think that is because it is a better film. It is instead because we are used to the slick film production that is Branaugh's style. His films never feel complicated or challenging. He expertly aims them straight at the psyche of his audience.
That makes many of his films very successful. It also means that fifty years from now, more people will watch Vertigo than Dead Again.
I'll probably watch both.
Next up, Steve Martin parodies film noir in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid!