Josephine Buchan Movies
The fancy footwork and star appeal of Gregory Hines as Raymond, an exiled American, and the powerful grace of Mikhail Baryshnikov as Nikolai, a defector, combine with a great production design to carry this otherwise thinly-stretched tale of intrigue. With a stellar supporting cast (Isabella Rossellini as Raymond's wife, Helen Mirren as Nikolai's lover, and Jerzy Skolimowski, the Polish director, as a wily KGB agent), the film has a few excellent moments. Nikolai has defected from the former USSR some time in the past. While on a trip, his plane spectacularly crashes on a runway in Siberia. Trapped in the country he had escaped, he is brought to stay with Raymond, an American who defected during the Vietnam war. Nikolai desperately wants to get out of the country, but the Russians have other plans. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, (more)
- 1984
- R
Similar to the 1991 Dead Again starring Kenneth Branagh, this story of reincarnation and murder also features two couples who meet again in a new lifetime. Brooke Ashley (Jaclyn Smith) is a ballerina and Michael Richardson (Nigel Terry) is her lover, and they both perish in a fire that destroys their home. Fifty years go by, and Gregory Thomas (Terry), a screenwriter, sees an old film clip of Ashley who could easily pass for his fiancee Maggie Rogers (Smith). Intrigued by this coincidence, he starts to research a screenplay on the ballerina's life, and to help get more material, he visits a medium (Shelley Winters) who used to know her. The medium reveals that Gregory is the reincarnation of the dead Richardson -- which means the former couple is back together again. Before any celebration is in order, some of the increasingly sinister mystery of how and why the couple died in the long-ago fire has to be cleared up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaclyn Smith, Nigel Terry, (more)
