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28 out of 46 people found the following review useful: A barely contained piece of spiritualist propaganda, 14 September 2007 Author: rainmonkey
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I just watched this film at its premier at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. While I enjoyed the acting abilities of Catherine Zeta Jones, Guy Pierce and especially the young Saoirse Ronan, the script was such an affront to the true Houdini that I almost gagged. In fact, I spoke up and asked a very uncomfortable question to Gillian Armstrong during the question and answer period. "How do you answer to the legacy of who Harry Houdini really was - a skeptic who spent his life energy successfully debunking anyone offering supernatural claims... inspiring such people as the great James Randi, who, like Harry, offered large sums of money to anyone who could prove, under scientific conditions, the existence of supernatural phenomena. To this date, the money has not been claimed... Harry championed the rational, scientific approach to studying phenomena. How do you justify the blatant spirituality shown in your movie?" The answer was vague. Ms. Armstrong pointed out that if Harry was such a skeptic, why was he so obsessed with the afterlife. Moreover, at the end of the film, there is a title card that describes the séances that have tried to contact Harry after his death, all with no success. Okay. Right. People are going to remember a few lines of text and NOT the angels swimming through the water, the visions of Harry's dead mother as he hung upside down in the Chinese Water Torture tank... the lights going out as little Benji writhed on the floor speaking perfect, fluent German, the "psychic connection" Mary had to Harry the moment he died (incidentally, Harry died at Detroit's Grace Hospital of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. on October 31 - Halloween - in Room 401, 1926, at the age of 52! Does Guy Pierce look 52 to you?). Ms. Armstong even did an informal poll of the audience - she asked "How many people here think that Benji was really channeling Harry's mother?" To which about half the audience raised their hands. Yikes. Do these people also believe in the tooth fairy? Yes, this is a Hollywood fantasy. However, it treats Harry as an unfaithful, vision-seeing pseudo psychic. It is an affront to everything Harry stood for. As a piece of fiction, it is enjoyable. If you can stomach its historical desecrations, you will enjoy wonderful acting and great cinematography. If you know anything about who Houdini was or value what he stood for, you will be frustrated by this blatant attempt to make our world even more demon-haunted than it already is.
17 out of 26 people found the following review useful: A Nutshell Review: Death Defying Acts, 11 May 2008 Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore
What had drawn me to watch Death Defying Acts, is that it's a story with Harry Houdini, arguably the greatest illusionist and escape artist of our time. A few days ago I was browsing through a book which revealed the secrets behind his brand of death defying acts, and really he's a man of science, engineering and most of all, a performer to bring to life the act of fooling an audience into believing his stunts. Sure there's an element of danger, but with proper risk assessment and safeguards, they strip away all the mystique that serves to confound.But contrary to the title, there's nothing really death defying about the movie, as it treaded on safe ground and doesn't dwell any more on the illusions that it has to. In fact, you can count the number of stunts which involve Harry Houdini, and the filmmakers left that for another biographical movie that someone else should pick up on. What we have instead are glimpses into the man's personal life, and Guy Pearce provided quite an intense and charismatic Houdini with personal demons of his own to do battle with, though the story seemed to rein him in from dwelling too much on that aspect, and preferred to have a more romantic tale weaved in.The romanticism of the movie is not with his illusions, but with a single parent who's a psychic of sorts, relying on her street smarts to get her own act going. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Mary McGarvie, who has to rely on her wits to build credibility for her stage character. Together with daughter and sidekick Benji (played by Saoirse Ronan of Atonement fame), the mother and daughter team tries hard to make a living from their acts, but realize that they're by no means close to Houdini's widespread fame and fortune.However, Houdini himself throws a gauntlet to all psychics far and wide, that whosoever can accurately reveal what his late mother had last said to him, will inherit US$10,000. His purpose it seems is to reveal that the majority of these soothsayers are tricksters in disguise, until of course he meets the luminous Mary, and affairs of the heart throws him off course. Naturally, Mary and Benji find themselves up against the best in the business, but when your back is against the wall, there's nothing much to lose it seems.As mentioned earlier, this movie's more of a character study of the master magician, and explores things like his guilt because of dedication to his craft and performance, as well as his questionable motives in being attracted to the fictional Mary McGarvie. Narrated by the character of Benji, we see things through a child's eyes, and perhaps therein lies the loss of some pathos in the romantic angle of it. On one hand, it isn't your classic romantic story, while on the other, it doesn't seem to want to preach the method, rationale and mindset of Houdini himself.So what emerged is a mixed bag. Beautifully shot, but again falling on the emptiness of its effort in trying to allow the audience to feel for the characters. At least Timothy Spall, who plays Mr Sugarman, Houdini's manager, allowed for some light moments as the guarded and wary person that he is. And credit goes to keeping the ending quite right too.
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Zeta-Jones takes it all!, 27 September 2008 Author: Bruno Costa from Portugal
When I saw the name of the movie ... i thought "what the hell?" but ... anyhow ... a friend of mine was so thrilled that i had to see it.I started the movie and i liked the way the movie's painted ... the lightening ... very good indeed ... but harry Houdini is not, for sure, the man we see in the movie. In here, he seems like an arrogant man who instantly falls in love with some girl.Aside from that, Zeta-Jones is once-again great and she kept me following during the movie ... i was really interested and i thought the little girl was also great...I recommend the movie ... not a brilliant one ... mas one to see when there's nothing better =)
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Not the best magician's movie out there..., 4 May 2009 Author: GeneralGrievous from Peru
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.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Could have been better, 8 October 2008 Author: siderite from Romania
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.
15 out of 26 people found the following review useful: Disappointingly flat, 17 August 2008 Author: Gordon-11 from Hong Kong
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.
8 out of 13 people found the following review useful: A Satisfying Mixture of Fact Embellished with Fiction, 31 October 2008 Author: gradyharp from United States
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
7 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Truth Defying Facts, 19 February 2009 Author: Senyales from Fraggle Rock
Gillian Armstrong's 'Death Defying Acts' is somewhat of a letdown. It tells the fictional story of a poor but beautiful psychic-wannabe and Houdini through her daughter's point of view. One must be warned that this film is fictional and thus, Pearce's Houdini does not bear much resemblance to the real one. This one lacks the enigma that made the real Houdini so fascinating. Nor does 'Death Defying Acts' stay true to the historical facts. The focus is much more on the psychic aspects (which wasn't that well explored either). The romance between Houdini and Mary is a little repetitive as it moves back and forth between trust and mistrust and then it becomes confusing. There was something lacking. On the plus side, Timothy Spall, Saoirse Ronan and Catherine Zeta-Jones perform well. The sensual Zeta-Jones does part of a scintillating dance as well. Guy Pearce performs good sometimes but he looks confused in many other scenes. The visuals and cinematography are stunning. The background score is whimsical and pleasing. Overall, it is an average movie that could have been better. One ought not to watch 'Death Defying Acts' as a true account but rather try to enjoy it as a work of fiction.
35 out of 68 people found the following review useful: Tasteful direction,vague script, miscasting, and detached point of view make this a leaden experience., 6 April 2008 Author: BOUF from Australia
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.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Redemption in the dialogue - the games people play, 15 December 2008 Author: Sean Smith (Zenorb) from Surfers Paradise, Australia
Warning DOES contain spoiler so don't read until after you've seen the movie.I just watched this last night on DVD and really enjoyed it. I'm so easily disappointed in movies these days. Disappointed in most of them. Big budget. Big name actors. Hugely technical stunts. Ho Hum. What was the moral of that story? I often find myself asking at the end of the movie - what was the moral of that? What message can I identify with in the real world?This seemed like a delightfully creative little fictionalisation to me. The movie has been represented as creative fantasy so no need to take it too seriously. I didn't mind the title at all. Afterall Houdini's (show) life was based on Death Defying Acts. But this movie turns out to be a love story with an element of the very spiritualism he was trying to debunk. I couldn't help feel that Houdini always wanted to pay someone that prize money. I suspect deep down he was always hoping he would find that inexplicable connection to the afterlife even though he knew it would be unlikely as he was most qualified in the tricks of that trade.Those rare few individuals that have the wonderful talent to tune into visions or cosmic consciousness or whatever are the first to concede others will call it a delusion and science will always find another explanation. Usually.So street tough and street wise Mary (Catherine) is focused on the scam of a lifetime. The character is obviously supposed to be a beautiful woman practiced in the art of beguiling men. Catherine pulls it off for me. I find her exquisitely beautiful. Houdini's (Guy) interest is a little peculiar (kinky?) perhaps. She even wonders herself is he falling for her because she's beautiful and she's growing attracted to him or because she reminds him of his mother?These two get in each others head space and I had to laugh when when the daughter (psychic sidekick) says (in her concern of watching her mother fall for the charismatic and artful player) "don't have just another roll in the hay - like you did with my dad."Ah the dynamics of the interpersonal relationships between men and woman. Lust. Love. As a man maybe it's easier for me to have trouble telling the difference some times. But it's all in the game.This is where we get to that perfect little dialogue. I liked it anyway. "Look what you've done to me" "I only made you fall in love" (Sounds like a player line to me. Maybe she had it coming. The player you are the player you get baby) "That wasn't love. That was infatuation. Just another fling. But it didn't quite happen did it." "I'm afraid. I'm afraid of myself. What I feel for you. What I want. It's shameful" "It's not shameful Harry. Who taught you that? It's what men and women do and sometimes if you're really lucky in between the sweaty sheets you'll find a little bit of true human love." "Did you ever find it?"(If you watch the movie you'll get the answer)The moral of the story. Sounds just like real life -Yes I'm attracted to you. Yes it feels like love (for the moment anyway) and it's the best feeling I've felt in a while. But my life - it's someplace else right now. Love. Eternal or ephemeral. You decide.
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