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Starring Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta Jones
Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Harry Houdini adjacent to an
under-construction Sydney Harbour Bridge sets an eloquent opening tone in
Armstrong’s vivid romance, which strives to be many things. Foremost it’s elegant:
Jones and Pearce hug the camera while opulent locations do the rest.
Death
Defying Acts is, foremost, a love-story between two
people whose line of work brings them closer than they thought possible. She is
Mary McGarvie who, with her scrappy daughter (Atonement’s Saoirse Ronan) offers a different type of escape.
They’re con artists who ‘commune with the dead’ for pennies a performance.
Learning that Houdini has a secret for which he’ll pay handsomely, they set out
to divulge his heart’s desire.
Armstrong ticks all the boxes as she layers
her story with a confident sense of period. Mary’s poor background, her
unconventional ways and her daughter’s unconventional beliefs abut neatly into
Houndini’s privileged, empty world.
Timothy Spall as his anxious manager lends
ample weight; though Pearce, and to a lesser extent Jones, fail to bring much
that is new to this drama. They leave that to rising talent Saoirse, who
injects a sense of intrigue and urgency that fits with the wondrous detail.
Death
Defying Acts is seldom boring, but elegance alone
leaves little impression. Ironically for a film about magic, there’s little to
be found.
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