CINEMA: Death Defying Acts

This film is a bit of a curiosity, being a cross between a romance and a paranormal teaser.

Set in Edinburgh in 1926, the action takes place during Harry Houdini’s (Guy Pearce) trip to the city. Houdini has an interest in psychics and has offered $10,000 to any psychic who can tell him his mother’s dying words.  Enter con artist Mary (Catherine Zeta Jones) and her daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan) who think they can trick the money out of him. While his agent (Timothy Spall) is doubtful about the whole venture, Harry himself is completely taken in by Mary. Mary also finds she has feelings for him, giving her conscience pause for thought as she prepares to dupe him.

The film has a grainy, sepia look to it and although the characters are nicely realised something about the story just does not click. There are whimsical elements (Mary and Benji live in a cottage in the middle of a cemetery) that sit uncomfortably with the more factual parts – always a problem when you fictionalise something within a real person’s life.

Had the film concentrated less on the romance and more on the real facts of Harry Houdini’s visit to Edinburgh it would have been more believable and hence more satisfying.       Dee Pilgrim