The film's opening credits are intercut with pans across newspaper clippings about a society murder committed by conductor-composer Roman Strauss (Kenneth Branagh). The articles were mostly written by Gray Baker (Andy García), who also visited Strauss on the day of his execution. The gates of a mansion in the past fade into the same gates in the present day, now the grounds of a Catholic orphanage.
Mike Church (also Branagh) is a smart-alecky Los Angeles private investigator whose job often involves tracing debt defaulters and locating missing people. He is called upon by Father Timothy (Richard Easton), the priest in charge of the orphanage where Mike was raised, to help identify a woman (Emma Thompson) who has appeared in a state of shock, unable to speak, and with amnesia.
Church takes the woman, whom he calls Grace, to his apartment to stay, and discovers she is terrified of scissors. The two uncover clues to her identity but nothing concrete. "Grace" regains her voice during a past life regression session with Franklyn Madsen (Derek Jacobi), an antique dealer who claims she is having a past life experience. Under hypnosis, she recalls a couple who lived during the 1940s, a famous composer and his pianist wife, as if she were part of their history. Madsen finds a LIFE magazine identifying the couple as actual people, Roman and Margaret. Margaret was brutally murdered, and Roman was executed for her murder.
As Mike and "Grace" fall in love, Grace is upset by the similarities of their courtship to that of Roman and Margaret. She becomes afraid of Mike and is unconvinced by his assertions that he's "not Roman." Madsenn hypnotizes Mike, leading to the revelation that Mike is the reincarnation not of Roman, but of Margaret. Now, Mike becomes afraid of Grace. Mike consults with Cozy Carlisle (Robin Williams), a disgraced psychiatrist who has lost his license and now works in a butcher shop. Grace consults with Madsen; each is advised to kill the other. Meanwhile, Mike's friend at the newspaper, Pete Dugan (Wayne Knight), uncovers Grace's true identity: she is Amanda Sharpe, an artist. Dugan takes her and Madsen to her apartment, where she discovers she is an artist who is obsessed with scissors. Madsen gives her an antique gun from his shop.
Mike finds Baker, now old and frail, at a nursing home. Baker no longer believes Roman killed Margaret but says that the housekeeper, Inga, would know. After the murder, Inga moved out and opened an antiques shop run by her son, Frankie, a disturbed boy with a stutter whom Margaret had accused of stealing. Mike then visits Inga (Hanna Schygulla), who explains that it was Frankie who killed Margaret. Inga had long been in love with Roman, and had saved his life as they fled war-torn Europe. After Margaret and Roman married, Inga had been treated coldly. Baker, attracted to Margaret, had made her suspicious that Roman had killed his first wife and was having a sexual affair with Inga. Roman loyally refused to fire Inga, despite Margaret's pleading, which made her even more suspicious. Unhappy about her treatment, Inga complained Frankie, who responded by killing Margaret with scissors. On hearing Inga's story, Mike, realizing that Franklyn Madsen is Frankie, races to Amanda's apartment; Frankie, meanwhile, arrives at the shop and murders his mother by smothering her.
Mike breaks into Amanda's apartment. She shoots him as he is trying to tell her the truth about Roman and Margaret. Frankie arrives. Amanda now tries to shoot him also, but this time the gun misfires. Frankie slaps her unconscious and prepares to shoot her (in the mouth, so that it will look like suicide), but Mike rouses himself and stabs Frankie with scissors (which Frankie had placed in his hand to incriminate him). Pete arrives with a pizza and tries to stop Mike, thinking he is trying to kill Amanda — but quickly realizes it is Frankie who is the killer (and who now has hold of Mike's gun). After a brief standoff, Amanda stabs Frankie in the back with the scissors. Enraged, Frankie (whose stutter has returned) removes the scissors and lunges at her and Mike. Mike moves a sculpture of giant scissors directly into his path, impaling him. The scene changes to one of Roman and Margaret kissing; this scene fills with color and fades to a shot of Mike and Amanda kissing.
(By Wikipedia)
(By Wikipedia)
Currently, I watched that film, That film is awesome=).
Salaams and Love,
