Death Defying Acts

Despite the renewed interest in movies about magicians thanks to the success of the recent "The Prestige" and "The Illusionist", as well as the presence of two famous stars and a child actress who was Oscar-nominated for another film she made the same year, "Death Defying Acts" had only a limited theatrical release in a few countries and drew little attention. You will know why if you happen to see it - although the production is fairly lavish, the film feels somehow "small" and restricted. It doesn't have enough dramatic tension, and it doesn't focus enough on Houdini's showmanship. Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta Jones give OK but rather unremarkable performances; the real standout in the cast is the young Saoirse Ronan, who is obviously destined for a long successful career. I also couldn't help but notice that both Pearce and CZJ were in such great physical shape here that they might have fared better doing an action film together. They could have even kept the same title....(**)

As it happens, I translated the Romanian version of this movie's "novelisation", adapted by Greg Cox, so I'm pretty familiar with the details and subtleties of the storyline. As it was already stated here, the script is linear, predictable and formulaic. Correctly built-up, but with no spark. Further, the climax and outcome are messy, superficially constructed and insufficiently justified, leaving in air not a few loose ends... The commenter Rainmonkey is right: Houdini had no trust and tolerance for spiritualism and the occult in general. It's true that at first, being deeply affected by hid beloved mother's death, he sincerely hoped to contact her through several mediums, and these ones' failings made hum turn frustrated and embittered, thus embarking his crusade of exposing them all as fraud. There were even some notorious instances when, landing as it seems over some genuine psychics, he fabricated fake "evidence" of their alleged "tricks" only to prove them also as crooks. Well, THIS would have been indeed a dramatic ending of our movie here: once Benji starts to have REAL manifestations, Houdini could have tried to rig the experiment as to make it look false - thus, compromising all the human relationship he had built so far with the two Scots... Unfortunately, Grisoni, Ward and Armstrong went for the cheap and well tried beaten trails, with no originality at all... All in all, a passable entertainment for hairdressers and biology-teachers in junior high - beautiful, sugary and pretty cheap.

There's nothing death defying about Death Defying Acts. This is a pretty conventional motion picture that doesn't try to do anything new with the genre it's portraying. There's nothing terribly wrong about this, but there isn't anything particularly original about the movie either. While it's been pretty maligned in some circles - maybe this is why it never was released in the States and it arrived two years late in Peruvian theatres - it's not a bad movie; it's OK, I guess, but nothing spectacular. This is the hardest type of movie to review - the kind of film that didn't make an impression on me, but that isn't that bad either. This will definitely be a short review. The film tells the story of mega-famous magician and trickster Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce - Memento). He's arrived on Britain as part of one of his tours - he's looking for a magician or psychic that can be able to guess - or "see" - the last words his mother uttered before dying. You see, this is all part of a scientific experiment he wishes to conduct. Something unexpected happens the moment he arrives at Scotland, though - he falls in love with psychic Mary McGarvie (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whose daughter and "apprentice", Benji (Saoirse Ronan) approached to accept his scientific challenge. If that small plot summary sounded simplistic, that's because it is. The movie is not particularly ambitious, and that's maybe why I was left overwhelmed by it - there's so much to say about a figure as famous and recognizable as Houdini, and the film decides to focus on something decidedly dull. The film actually starts with some promise - I liked Ronan's voice-over, and it almost seemed as if the film was to focus on something interesting. But then, of course, I started to discover this was going to be a romance - a very clichéd, underdeveloped romance, at that - and I shuddered. If there's a reason why the film is not bad, it's because of some solid performances. Guy Pearce is one of the most underrated actors working today - see his work in the aforementioned Memento if you don't believe me - and although the screenplay doesn't present a particularly three-dimensional version of Houdini, he makes him believable and humane. Catherine Zeta Jones is pretty good too, sporting a credible Scottish accent (!) and trying to portray Mary as a sympathetic figure despite the fact that the writers' don't seem to like the character. Timothy Spall - as Houdini's manager - is great as always, but the real standout is Saoirse Ronan. (Who was also really amazing in Atonement, by the way.) It's not only that she portrays the most developed, interesting and fun character, it's also that she brings it to life - Pearce and Zeta Jones' performances are precisely that (performances) but Ronan seems to be inhabiting her character, definitely putting a lot of passion into a project that arguably doesn't deserve that much. Despite the fact that Death Defying Acts is already available on DVD and Blu-Ray in most countries, I got to see it in theatres. I can't say I regret having paid for this particularly theatrical viewing experience, but I won't enthusiastically recommend the movie either. The screenplay, while not terrible, is pretty ordinary, and the direction is all right. (Cinematography is gorgeous, though, and the score is beautiful.) Performances - especially Ronan's - are what save the film from entering the realm of mediocrity, but if you really want to watch a magician's flick, I'd recommend either the Illusionist or The Prestige.

No doubt this film will be considered a 'fine' movie. However I personally believe this to be one of the most arrogant excuses of 'auteurism' I've ever seen. I can easily excuse artistic liberty but this so blatantly demeans and insults any memory of the real Houdini as to be laughable. I can imagine during the making of this piece of tripe that all concerned were in awe of the sheer artistry involved and were already writing their Oscar acceptance pieces. Well, 'good' casting, costumes, cinematography etc. do not a good movie make. There is no 'Atonement' for this worthy piece of rubbish whatever. Being told I need four more lines to get my comment listed, here goes. Don't bother with this film unless. You like pretty costumes and people. You are a friend of either Michael Douglas or Catherine Zeta Jones. A friend of the director. You think the kid deserves an Oscar.

This film is about a woman who works as a con artist trying to deceive Harry Houdini into believing that she has psychic powers. "Death Defying Acts" sounds like an action movie, but the poster looks more like a romantic film. In fact it is neither. It is a slowly unfolding drama about how Mary attempts to con Harry, and how harry falls for her. As Houdini is the greatest escape artist of all times, a film about him should have been exciting, thrilling and even death defying. However, this film has none of these attributes. The plot is slow, plain and not exciting at all. There is not much tension or drama to captivate me. I do not care about the characters, and whatever relationship they have between them. There is little chemistry between Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Frankly, I think they are both miscast. Fortunately, Saoirse Ronan is delightful as the psychic sidekick. She is the one who save the film. "Death Defying Acts" turns out to be a bore. I am quite disappointed by it.

Tasteful direction seems to kill any chance of getting a glimpse of what the characters in this film might have really been like. It's like a very detached museum piece created by a well meaning suburban curator, who wants everything to be viewed in the nicest possible light. Houdini was a very tough ex-circus performer..a guy who started in the scummiest dumps and worked his way up..and the Edinburgh music hall scene was an absurdity. I went to music halls in Edinburgh in the 1950s, and you could smell the beer and body odour, hear the place ringing out with cat calls, swearing, smart-aleck remarks..not in this dainty presentation..and this was supposed to be the much cruder 1920s. That daintiness seems to extend to the female con artists, who must be the best dressed, best fed couple of slappers in history..and how has Ms Zeta Jones become so boring? She used to be so full of zest and sass. There's very little zest and sass in this script or in this film.

What a travesty ! Houdini's character and life is already fascinating enough, Why bother to fictionalise to such an extent with unconvincing characters and an unbelievable story ? Wrapping this poorly told and flimsy fabrication in a narration that belonged more in a Disney or Hallmark product than a film by a much - awarded and deservedly acclaimed director didn't help much either. Zeta - Jones and Ronan were unconvincing and severely lacking in chemistry as a mum and daughter. Pearce was excellent but there was a woeful lack of conviction in his relationship with both Zeta Jones and Ronan. Why would Houdini get involved with such an obvious con - artist partnership when he dedicated so much of his life to exposing fake mediums and psychics. The film also did great disservice to Houdini himself by showing that he deceived his audiences as willingly as the shysters he exposed. I saw this film last night at its Brisbane premiere and was frankly staggered by the extravagant compliments paid to it's director and the film itself by both her interviewer and audience members during the question and answer session following the screening. It's good to be polite but a little criticism wouldn't have gone astray, even in the director's presence. One brave soul did hazard to ask why fictionalise to such an extent and Gillian Armstrong replied that her film was more about the eternal truth of love than the great illusionist himself. She also seemed very eager to point out that she wasn't responsible for the script or the storyline. Compared to the 1953 film Houdini starring Tony Curtis, Death Defying Acts showed very little evidence of progress in over 50 years of commercial film making and certainly wasn't worthy of either it's leading man Guy Pearce or director Gillian Armstrong.

I really did not care that this was not a factual account of Houdini's life. There are some truths in the depiction of Harry (some actual B&W footage is used of his acts and his debunking of mystics). It was enjoyable, had beautiful cinematography, elements of humor a story of love and life...however implausible it may be, it does not detract from elegance of watching Catherine Zeta Jones(Mary McGarvie) try to support herself and her daughter, matching wits with the great Houdini. Catherine displays a grace and style combined with fire and drive. Her daughter provides moments of comedic relief and there is tension between Catherine and Guy Pearce - should she win the money at any cost, allow herself to fall in love, what is in the afterlife? This was entertainment based on Houdini, a platform to tell a story which I thought was well done.

Another magician movie? But The Illusionist and The Prestige were great movies, so why not? Catherine Zeta Jones plays a foxy, yet poor, mother, scamming away through life pretending to be a psychic. When Guy Pearce's Houdini comes into town to prove or disprove the existence of the paranormal, they come into contact. It is both a sad and a hopeful movie. A little too "psychic" for me and too little about the true nature of Harry Houdini except his fascination for his dead mother. The script itself does not lend itself to praise, but the atmosphere and realisation are top notch. Bottom line: watch it when you are in a mood for a rom-drama, but you don't care much about the subject.

Gillian Armstrong makes fine movies: she is a director who knows how to tell stories and enhance what appears on the surface to be reality with a healthy dose of fantasy. Her sense of pacing and image creation adds substance to her tales that sometimes border on bizarre. DEATH DEFYING ACTS uses the character of Harry Houdini as the stimulus of to tell a story about the folk of Edinburgh, Scotland at a time when stage shows were embraced much the way America was using vaudeville - an escape from the rather dreary state of living to a world of entertainment and love of magic. Mary McGarvie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan) survive in Edinburgh by picking pockets not merely for cash but for information to use in their act in the little theaters. Mary does exotic dances then uses her 'gifts' to see into the 'other world' of people in the audience ( Benji does the investigative work and is the prompter for the séance like acts Mary performs). Their idol is Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce) and when they learn Houdini is coming to Edinburgh to 'perform', they discover Houdini is promising $10,000 to anyone who can prove they have the ability to look into the future (or past). Houdini's manager Sugarman (Timothy Spall) arranges Houdini's water tank escape acts and other acts of 'magic', and when Mary and Benji arrange to meet Houdini, Sugarman is aware they are charlatans. How Mary and Benji work their way into Houdini's belief system and love life with their con game forms the meat of the sparing. The atmosphere of the film is well captured by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos who understands who to balance the mire of the streets of 1926 Edinburgh with the gorgeous fantasies used during Houdini's escape acts. The musical score by Cezary Skubiszewski is a terrific mixture of Scottish tunes and instruments with solid melodramatic mood music. Pearce, Zeta-Jones, Spall and Ronan turn in excellent performances. This is an unjustly overlooked film that, while not being a masterpiece, serves up a fine story well told. Grady Harp