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Derek Malcolm's rating
Houdini comes a cropper in Death Defying Acts
By
Derek Malcolm
7 Aug 2008
Sometime in the Twenties, according to Gillian Armstrong’s film, escapologist Harry Houdini went to Edinburgh to offer 10,000 dollars to anyone who could discover the last words of his beloved late mother. A fake psychic stepped forward and Houdini, who specialised in exposing fakery of all sorts, fell for her.
This is not exactly what one wants to see from a Houdini biography but Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones star in this handsomely mounted period piece that might have turned out OK if the two had dovetailed more neatly together. But they never do: the former feels a little diminished and surly and the latter simply doesn’t suit the part.
Armstrong, who made My Brilliant Career, one of the best Australian films, but hasn’t hit that mark since, is a good director. Yet, like her two leads, she seems here to be working on the wrong story. It’s all a touch undercooked and dull. Although there’s Tim Spall as Houdini’s sceptical manager and Saoirse Ronan as the psychic’s lively daughter to cheer things up, not to mention luxurious packaging that can’t be faulted.
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