Movie rating: 2 and half Star

Red Lights

20519

Coming from the guy who put Ryan Reynolds in a box and got his best ever performance (Buried director Rodrigo Cortes), expectations for this one were high. A classy cast headlined by the always interesting Cillian Murphy, and featuring iconic veteran names Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro, you'd be forgiven for expecting something different. The resulting film is high in ambience, but not nearly as smart as it thinks it is. The final twist in particular is underlined so heavily it borders on condescending.

Weaver and Murphy are paranormal investigators who specialise in debunking mediums, psychics and the like. Very good at what they do, they're underfunded, overworked and driven by a seemingly inexplicable urge to expose the frauds making millions off of the vulnerability of the weak-minded. One of the most controversial and successful is De Niro's showman, Simon Silver, who has been retired for a few decades but plans on an extravagant comeback. When he hits up their hometown, Murphy's hungry young investigator is keen to nail him, but Weaver's wary professor has history with the enigmatic and creepy mind-fucker.

There's something inherently fascinating about the world of the supernatural and paranormal. While Red Lights doesn't go down the horror route of exorcisms and poltergeists, the tone is similar - all foreboding and drenched in shadow. When a cast of this calibre appears in a film with such a subject matter, the natural response is heightened expectation. Adult thrillers of this ilk, with this kind of thespian star-power, don't happen too often nowadays. Cortes ultimately struggles to get a firm grasp of his film and it's subsequently feels like it probably reads better in script form than it plays on screen.

That's not to shit all over Red Lights, it certainly works sporadically. Murphy is a hugely underrated leading man, and veers from affable to edgy with ease. He has a nice dynamic with Weaver, and more than holds his own opposite De Niro. The film just doesn't move with the confidence it should, and when the ending comes the tension should be palpable - it isn't. Speaking of the ending, while it reaches to leave the audience contemplating an earth-shattering revelation, it's more of a shrugging acceptance.

Momentarily engaging, but doesn’t have the urgency to pack the punch it wants to.

Review by Mike Sheridan | 15:01 | Friday 15th June 2012 | Movie Review

20519

Comments

• roger

  Goin to go see this

  Posted 14:54 | Wed 20th Jun 2012

• Caroline Foran

  Love Cillian Murphy!!

  Posted 16:31 | Wed 20th Jun 2012

• Caroline Foran

  Love Cillian Murphy!!

  Posted 16:31 | Wed 20th Jun 2012

• Display Name

  Wow, you really love Cillian Murphy.

  Posted 17:58 | Thu 21st Jun 2012

• ShankillDublin

  Twice as much as anyone else.....

  Posted 18:00 | Thu 21st Jun 2012

• Brendan Doyle

  Trailer looked promising... but this another turkey starring De Niro. Avoid unless you likes being bored for 2 hours

  Posted 23:20 | Fri 22nd Jun 2012

• FilmBuff76

  Well, I liked Red Lights...

  Posted 08:53 | Sat 23rd Jun 2012

• KeyboardSadist

  I went to see this at the weekend and I have to admit it was fairly good. It isn't perfect, but it's definitely watchable. While there's something very formulaic about the characters, i.e. the sceptical physicists hotly and quickly dismiss all emerging claims of paranormal phenomena (as if we didn't know they would), they're still quite strong. There's good onscreen chemistry between Murphy and Weaver as well. The only character who's left at a bit of a loose end is the one played by Elizabeth Olsen; she's a good actress, but, beyond a spot of getting-to-know-you banter with Murphy, she doesn't seem to have much to do, or have a purpose that's central to the plot. I have to say that the ending was very good and had a really nice twist, but I was disappointed at the shoddiness of the ending overall. That probably doesn't make much sense when I type it here, but, when you see the film, it's apparent that it lacks a sense of neatly wrapped-up finality despite the revelation that's unearthed. It's still worth checking out though, if only to watch Murphy's decent performance and De Niro as a blind psychic spoon bender (lol).

  Posted 00:13 | Thu 28th Jun 2012

• greta

  i saw this about 2 weeks ago and i did like it i am a de niro fan and a cillian murphy fan so i had to go some parts were abit mmmmmmm but all in all wasnt a bad movie worth a watch on dvd

  Posted 13:33 | Thu 5th Jul 2012

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