Dead Again is a 1991 neo-noir[2] romantic thriller film directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Scott Frank.

It stars Branagh and Emma Thompson, with Andy García, Derek Jacobi, Hanna Schygulla, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams appearing in supporting roles.

Forty-three years later, private detective Mike Church investigates the identity of a woman who has appeared at the orphanage where he grew up.

Mike takes her in and asks his friend, Pete Dugan, to publish her picture and his contact info.

Antiques dealer and hypnotist Franklyn Madson approaches Mike, suggesting that hypnosis may help her to recover her memory.

A man named Doug appears and claims that she is his fiancée, Katherine, but Mike discovers that he is lying and chases him off.

Hypnotized, Grace remembers that Roman suffered from writer's block and was broke, despite his earlier wealth.

Margaret cannot convince him that she is faithful and catches Frankie, the son of their housekeeper, Inga, looking through her jewelry box.

Amanda (Grace), still afraid of Mike, accompanies Dugan and Madson to her apartment; her artwork focuses on scissors.

A closing montage shows Mike and Amanda embracing, superimposed over Margaret and Roman in happier times.

The consensus reads: "Even if the somewhat convoluted plot falls apart upon close inspection, Dead Again proves Kenneth Branagh has a solid knack for enjoyable pulp.

"[9] James Berardinelli also gave the film a four-star review, praising Branagh's direction and all levels of the production, from the screenplay by Scott Frank to Patrick Doyle's score, stating, "...Branagh has combined all of these cinematic elements into an achievement that rivals Hitchcock's best work and stands out as one of the most intriguing and memorable thrillers of the 1990s.

"[10] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone viewed the film negatively, praising some elements of Branagh's direction, while criticizing the romance, saying, "In his efforts to crowd the screen with character and incident, Branagh cheats on the one element that might have given resonance to the mystery: the love story.

Branagh and Thompson (married in real life) are sublime actors, but they never develop a convincing ardor as either couple.

"[11] Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the film a lukewarm review, calling it "a big, convoluted, entertainingly dizzy romantic mystery melodrama", and concluding, "Dead Again is eventually a lot simpler than it pretends to be.

The explanation of the mystery is a rather commonplace letdown, but probably nothing short of mass murder could successfully top the baroque buildup.

"[12] In 2016, Jason Bailey at Flavorwire repeated Roger Ebert's initial directorial comparisons, writing that, "Dead Again is one of the most Hitchcockian thrillers this side of De Palma, with easily traceable influences of Olivier-fronted Rebecca (in the creepy, needy housekeeper), Psycho (the mysterious old mother in the next room), Dial M for Murder (the scissors as murder weapon), and Spellbound (the therapeutic elements, plus a quickie reference to Salvador Dalí, who advised on that film’s dream sequences).