Red Lights

Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant, Dr. Thomas Buckley (Cillian Murphy), are university professors who debunk psychics, mystics, healers, and other similar snake charmers. They have never met a fraud they couldn't uncover, until Simon Silver (Robert De Niro).

Simon Silver had been around for ages doing his schtick. Margaret went up against him years ago and lost. He stopped performing for a long time after an opponent of his died of a heart attack during one of his shows. For some unknown reason he is seeking to make a comeback and Tom Buckley wants to take him down. Even though Tom is hankering to expose Simon, Margaret is not sold on the idea, in fact she's opposed to it, but Tom will not be denied.

When Tom starts the process of trying to figure out Simon's tricks many weird things begin to happen. Is Simon doing all of this? Is he really as powerful as he claims?

"Red Lights" is atmospheric and well paced with good dialog. I like the plot idea: using science and instrumentation to expose fraudulent psychics and mentalists. My sentiments are always with the most sincere and the least arrogant, yet I'm always looking out to see if I'm being swindled by the movie itself. "Red Lights" keeps everything fairly straightforward without too many plot tricks. This was a good movie and a good quality production overall.

Free on IMDb TV.

When you see the cast list for this film, you have to wonder why it never succeeded. Red Lights is not a perfect film by any stretch, but it is still engrossing and approaches the subject matter with a care and detail you wouldn't expect.

In regards to my experience with Spanish and Mexican filmmaking (I bunch them because they seem to have similar artistic tropes) Red Lights possesses much of the same details. Moody lighting, technically sound editing and generally brisk pacing. We get this during the first 2/3 of the film, and then things kind of fall off the track. Cillian Murphy's character is becoming unhinged and possibly the more frenetic pace and editing is meant to match that. Either way it wasn't necessary. Murphy has enough range and chops to bring that energy to the screen.

What I especially loved was Robert De Niro's performance. Hammy, over the top when it needs to be, nuanced and bizarre when the story calls for it. I especially enjoyed the aspects of how Sigourney Weaver and Murphy hunt down and debunk the fake mediums and psychics. It's clear the director has some experience or did massive research on the subject. I appreciate this because we were definitely brought into the world of the skeptics and the believers.

There is really only a couple things I disliked. The music was basic at best, sometimes coming in too hard and melodic. I especially did not like the score for the final scene, which is really the only part of the movie I take issue with. In a perfect world, the score and the Coda would have been removed, and instead the final scene could have played out like The Usual Suspects. Either way, we got the ending we got. I think many people would hold it in higher regard if it wasn't spelled out the way it was. Maybe we will get a directors cut (unless the choices were what the director wanted of course).

The movie won't wow you but it will bring you in. I enjoyed the premise and while the ending was too spelled out... I had no problem with the final resolution.

Firstly, apologies for the review title. I've seen too many tabloid headlines.

Red Lights was reasonably original, well-written and well-acted. Any movie that can tick these three boxes is worth a look. Although the build up to the introduction of De Niro's character (Simon Silver) represented a slightly excessive portion of the movie it was, nevertheless, interesting. I gather the ending has divided opinion quite a lot, and I admit that it could have been done much better. I've said before when reviewing movies that it's never a good sign when you have to have a character explicitly explain just what has happened in the film. It might have been a better idea to leave it without the explanation and let the audience decide. That might have stoked up debate in a good way and generated some more interest in the film.

Acting-wise i'm sorry to say i'm always skeptical when Robert De Niro appears in a movie nowadays. The man was a terrific actor in his day, but he's been in a lot of recent turkeys. He doesn't have a lot of screen-time here but his performance was fine. If he keeps choosing credible films like this one his reputation will start to repair itself. Sigourney Weaver performs with credit as usual and I always rate Cillian Murphy highly.

Definitely worth going to see this. It's above average, if only slightly.

The skeptical psychologist Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant, the physician Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy), are specialists in disclosing fraudulent paranormal phenomena. When the famous psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) reappears to his public after many years of absence, Tom becomes obsessed to investigate whether Silver is a fraud or not.

"Red Lights" could have been a good movie with an intriguing premise. Unfortunately the plot is destroyed by the awful rushed conclusion, leaving many open questions behind. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Poder Paranormal" ("Paranormal Power")

Sometimes Questions are answered without the viewer knowing it and others raised without the viewer noticing. This movie is one of those instances that will have you guessing from start to finish. With some nice twists along the way, everything is set up along the way, so if you really think about it, there is no real cheat in it (no pun intended).

The director keeps it close and walks a fine line, with a really great cast to support the theme and the story. You might not be pleased by how this movie resolves the issue at hand, but can't deny that the story has quite a lot of appeal. I did like the movie, even though I can see why some people were not that invested in it. The beginning is really great (especially if you haven't read anything about the story).