Reaction: DEATH DEFYING ACTS

So here we are on day eight, and it finally happened. I went to a screening of a movie I didn’t like. Someone in the know warned me about this coming in, but I wanted to like it. Truthfully, I can’t say that I didn’t like it, more like I didn’t care about it once it was over. The movie in question is DEATH DEFYING ACTS (* *), starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The story is about Jones’ character Mary McGregor. She appears to be a psychic, or a medium, but in fact she is just a fraud. Upon hearing that Harry Houdini (Pearce) is coming to town, she and her daughter set their sights on trying to con the illusionist, and in doing so land a $10,000 windfall Houdini has offered up for a real psychic connection with his recently deceased mother. Sounds like a half decent movie, wouldn’t you say?

Unfortunately, I found most of it rather flat. Houdini never comes across as someone much larger than life, so it’s a slight waste of a character. Pearce might as well have been playing any rich American. Making matters worse, this is now the third major movie in two years to centre around an early 20th century magician (counting THE PRESTIGE and THE ILLUSIONIST), so the market is already a tad watered down. But what left me shrugging my shoulders, is how the movie’s intensity level, it’s passion, and the drama of the story never raises much higher than a low simmer – even in its climax.

The screening itself was enjoyable, with director Gillian Armstrong and Guy Pearce answering questions. Guy, not surprisingly, is rather witty so there were more than a few laughs at his answers. I actually got some decent photos of Mr. Pearce on his way into the Ryerson. More on that tomorrow.

As the movie wound down, I couldn’t help but lump it in with three films I saw at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival: STAGE BEAUTY, A GOOD WOMAN, and THE LIBERTINE. None of them were “bad”, but all of them were rather forgettable. None of them were the sort of movie I was talking about to anyone once the festival ended. Unfortunately, I won’t be talking to anyone about DEATH DEFYING ACTS come Monday.

The film screens once more on Saturday, 9am at The Ryerson.