Dead Again

Kenneth Branagh’s follow-up to his Henry V adaptation is this reincarnation noir pitched at full operatic tilt: by turns lush and implausible yet totally sincere. Spanning 1940s and 1990s Los Angeles, it follows a private eye (Branagh) and an amnesiac woman (Emma Thompson) whose present-day bond begins to echo a decades-old murder. Past lives begin to bleed into the present, while scissors, hypnosis, and mistaken identities swirl into a karmic spiral of romantic obsession and twisted humor. Often dismissed as a Hitchcock pastiche, Dead Again is far more playful and emotionally earnest than its influences suggest—a feverish genre bender full of theatrical flourishes and bold performances (including a scene-stealing Robin Williams) that plays like a romantic thriller possessed by a detective story, gothic fantasy, and historical melodrama all at once.