Dead Again 1991

A dreadful mish mash of a thriller that pretty much ended Kenneth Branagh’s directing career as well it should have. Set in 1990’s L.A. with black and white flashbacks to late 40’s L.A. the plot concerns a murder and some silly notations about reincarnation, karma and globs of back from the dead gibberish. Branagh plays a private eye who tries to help Emma Thompson figure out who she really is because for some reason she has amnesia and she looks exactly like the woman who was murdered back in the black and white flashbacks, and Branagh looks exactly like the man who may have committed the murder. This movie with its ludicrous plot twists and turns should never have reached the screen but since it did I feel free to throw stones at it. Branagh puts on his heavy showy American accent that is annoying to say the least and only calls attention to itself. Also along for this stuck roller coaster ride is Hanna Schygulla,  Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams, Andy Garcia and Campbell Scott.  The film does look good but with a plot full of holes that is embarrassingly influenced by practically every movie that Alfred Hitchcock ever made and I still can’t figure out why Emma had amnesia. .