Death Defying Acts: Houdini's Secret | Christian Toto reviews, Romance | DONNE TEMPO
Death Defying Acts: Houdini's Secret
October/26/08 06:10 PM Filed in: Christian
Toto reviews | Romance
So why did it visit movie houses ever so briefly over the summer before rushing to DVD?
It doesn't take a magician to figure it out, but "Acts" still has enough curious charms to recommend it as a second-choice rental.
Zeta-Jones plays Mary, a pseudo psychic whose true talent comes in ripping people off. She and her daughter, Benji (Saoirse Ronan of "Atonement" fame) travel across Edinburgh squeezing money from strangers.
They decide to work their "magic" on Harry Houdini (Pearce) when the famed magician pays Edinburgh a visit. He's touring, in part, to find someone who can contact his late mother from the grave. The famously skeptical magician will hand over $10,000 to anyone who can tell him his mother's final words. And Mary is obsessed with figuring just what those words were - and profiting from it.
Of course Houdini doesn't really believe anyone can contact the dead. But he puts aside his skepticism once Mary enters his life.
Naturally, a romance between the two blossoms, albeit one hardly grounded in logic. But since when did romance follow reason?
The chemistry between Pearce and Zeta-Jones is akin to what's grown in a high school lab. It flickers and fades but never comes truly alive. The real spark comes from Ronan, a natural scene stealer who gives the film its sense of humanity.
Pearce is just fine as Houdini, capturing his larger than life persona as well as the pain beneath the image. His sly turn alone is reason enough to check out "Death Defying Acts."
The goods: You'd be hard pressed to conjure up two more attractive leads than Zeta-Jones and Pearce. And young Ronan is proving to be an acting attraction onto herself. The gorgeous backdrops both inspire and nudge the story forward, if only the drama in front of it were so captivating.
The Mandatory Extras: An expansive "making of" feature explores the liberties the filmmakers took with Houdini as well as the efforts by Pearce to bring the escapologist to life. Pearce rebounded from his rail-thin appearance in "Factory Girl," in which he played Andy Warhol, to play the beefy Houdini. The actor even practiced holding his breath underwater, and hanging upside down to prep for the role. Disk also features a commentary track with Armstrong and producer Marian MacGowan.
Above and Beyond: "Death Defying Acts," despite its modest rewards, stands as a missed opportunity more than anything else. Houdini's life is ripe for a manufactured romance, but even the combined allure of Zeta-Jones and Pearce can't tweak enough heart strings here.
— Christian Toto
