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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2012
Country of origin:	Spain / USA
Director:	Rodrigo Cortés
Genre:	Sceptical paranormalcy
Starring:	Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Olsen
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748179/
Tagline:	No tagline
Favourite line:	"There are two kinds of people out there with a special gift. The ones who really think they have some kind of power. And the other guys, who think we can't figure them out."

Supernatural thriller with sceptical leanings.

The plot:
Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) is a scientist who has dedicated her life to debunking those who make paranormal claims. Her methods are simple. Control the environment, double blind the experiment and see what the charlatans are actually made of.
Her assistant, Buckley (Cillian Murphy), if anything seems even more fervent in his desire to see the exploiters of the naïve exposed.
When renowned psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) returns to the limelight many years after withdrawing following a mysterious death at one of his shows, Buckley wishes to out him for the fraud he is convinced he is but, strangely, Matheson is reluctant.
What powers can Silver possibly possess that seem to scare her so?


Strange one, this.
Bit schizophrenic.
Half movie, half lecture on the perils of pseudo-science.
A pre-credit sequence introduces us to the main players, and establishes their rationalist view-points. The audience is then initiated into the ways of rational thinking as we, as viewers, effectively sit in a class being delivered to a cohort of students.
Psychics and mediums use tricks, you see. Sleight of hand. Deception. Even lifting tables up with their feet and pretending it’s the spirits moving them.
The bastards.
Enter Big Bob as Simon the psycho psychic, and things get a bit strange. See, suddenly the director / writer / producer / editor Rodrigo Cortés appears to have had a change of heart. He’s not a rationalist anymore, now he’s down with the pseudo-science, and seems to think it’s real.
Heh, I know it’s only a film, and silliness is permitted, but make your mind up Rodrigo, the tone’s shifting all over the place.
A great cast, with the always excellent Cillian Murphy the stand out, as usual –just look at those gorgeous, pale, blue eyes and tell me you don’t want to melt – the marketing for this compared it to The Sixth Sense. Always a dangerous ploy as usually that means ‘a bit like film X, only not quite so good;’ and, unfortunately, that is the case here, though I can see why the marketing bods went down that route as it does have a couple of M. Night Shyamalan moments in it; big reveals that are designed to pull the rug from under you. Trouble is, both myself and Mrs Mo guessed them before they actually happened.
And we’re really thick.
Two hours long, so just about at my usual limit of tolerance, this passed quickly enough and, crucially, at no point did tedium set in, so kind of, sort of, a half arsed recommendation.
I think.
Maybe.
Go find out for yourselves.
You fuckers.