Reincarnation is an interesting topic, though "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" failed to tackle this particular doctrine in even a REASONABLY compelling way...
A college professor is having vivid dreams involving the murder of another man, who is beaten with a canoe paddle by Margot Kidder. Since it's freaking out his unsuitably hot girlfriend, he decides to seek out professional advice from some medical researchers who are doing some experimental dream exploration. Turns out his dreams are not being recorded as actual 'dreams' so he is eventually led to believe he is the reincarnation of the murdered man whose last moments are surfacing from some semi-conscious memory that has been transferred to his new being (or whatever). He decides to seek out the family of the man and learn about who he was while, of course, keeping his unbelievable revelations secret...
"The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" begins on a rather intriguing - possibly supernatural kind of set-up - then shifts into a light mystery before running out of momentum and ending on a highly unsatisfactory note... The recipient of the dreams eventually starts banging the daughter of his previous existence (is that incest?) while the aged mother/murderer begins to catch onto his initial motive of entering their lives. This where the movie completely fell flat and I could not understand the purpose of the final act. You would think his intentions would be to incriminate the mother and solve the 30 year old death of the husband, but all he seems to want is to bang the daughter. The final five mintues are incredibly predictable and lazy.
Like I said, ROPP could've been alright if it had just taken the concept and ran with it, but it just couldn't seem to get off the ground right from the start...
Reincarnation is an interesting topic, though "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" failed to tackle this particular doctrine in even a REASONABLY compelling way...
