death defying acts
july 18:' death defying acts' screening at the catalina island museum .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing death defying acts near you .
' he might as well have been called joe smith'... guy pearce as houdini in death defying acts
with the headline: theater review: death defying acts; really a jungle out there, a jungle of urban neuroses .
roll up, roll up – the circus has arrived in town and promises a thrilling week of death - defying circus acts .
karratha residents have been treated to twelve death defying performances by the great loritz circus this month .
death defying acts is a hugely enjoyable, impressively directed drama with superb performances and an emotionally engaging script. terrific final scene too. highly recommended .
death defying acts
is based on the life of harry houdini, the fictional tale of how an escapologist fell in love with an edinburgh woman .
this year' s show promises to up the performances with the inclusion of two death defying acts which are likely to have audiences on the edge of their seats .
his cv includes such enormous hits as neighbours and la confidential, but also duds like the time machine. it' s all about balance, the death defying acts actor tells xan brooks
death defying acts & apos; guy pearce is nominated as best lead actor in film against mcinnes, the square & apos; s david roberts and the black balloon & apos; s rhys wakefield .
all a' what if' movie needs to win me over are some lush costumes and production design, a smart casting choice or two, and a really ridiculous basic idea. death defying acts obliges on all fronts .
“death defying acts” brings together three different comic voices under one roof for an uneven evening. it’s likely to leave a lot of theatergoers scratching their heads about what they’ve just seen. it never lives up to the noble purpose that title suggests. and the main event is actually quite life - defying .
one of the best aussie directors of her generation, armstrong may be incapable of making a graceless film. but coming after “oscar and lucinda” and “charlotte gray, ” “death defying acts” underlines how long it’s been since she’s had a project that fit just right .
: this experiment is nothing less than a battle between love and death, gentlemen. is death final, or will love triumph? place your bets, please .
the umbrella title “death defying acts” works quite well for the first two of three new one - act plays, by david mamet and elaine may, but it’s a gift to woody allen, whose “central park west” is the evening’s entire second half and the segment most difficult to assess .
not, however, before admitting that while she may indeed love sam (guilfoyle) — for whom she is all too willing to dump her wimpy failed writer of a husband, howard (becker) — she is only one of sam’s many infidelities, presumably his “death defying acts. ”
the 2008 rising star award was won by actress saoirse ronan following her breakthrough and oscar nominated performance in ‘atonement’. this year ronan is nominated for two ifta awards for her roles in ‘city of ember’ and ‘death defying acts’, and most recently she has starred in peter jackson’s ‘the lovely bones’ .
all human acts ranging from the likes of fear - defying high wire artist marco polo, acrobats duo serik and romy and her magical aerial crystal ball act aim to bring laughter and suspense to the audience .
they' re also the principal characters in
death defying acts ,
the program of three effervescent one - act comedies by david mamet, elaine may and woody allen, which opened last night at the variety arts theater. who needs broadway when off broadway can be as much easy and mischievous fun as this ?
the umbrella title
death defying acts
works quite well for the first two of three new one - act plays, by david mamet and elaine may, but it' s a gift to woody allen, whose
central park west
is the evening' s entire second half and the segment most difficult to assess .
we talk about his latest role, impersonating houdini in gillian armstrong' s death defying acts. he gives a heartfelt committed performance, but the film itself is a bit flat, a trifle uncertain. it plays fast and loose with history, relocating the great escapologist to edinburgh where he has a relationship with a phoney spiritualist played by catherine zeta - jones .
the umbrella title “death defying acts” works quite well for the first two of three new one - act plays, by david mamet and elaine may, but it’s a gift to woody allen, whose “central park west” is the evening’s entire second half and the segment most difficult to assess. the brief curtain - raiser, “an interview, ” is bottom - drawer [ … ]
last year’s “the illusionist” and “the prestige” located an audience for costume dramas revolving around stage sleight - of - hand and gimmicky suspense narratives, rather than the usual drawing - room or court intrigue. “death defying acts” might benefit from whatever appetite those pics whet, but it lacks their revenge - driven mystery hooks, offering instead romping and romance that feel half - baked. [ … ]
gillian armstrong' s death defying acts (the weinstein co .) is a minor but satisfying entry in the
what if
historical - fantasy genre spoofed in that old snl skit ,
what if george washington had a robot friend ?
such movies wedge imagined characters and events into the lives of historic figures. what if sigmund freud treated sherlock holmes for cocaine addiction? what if h. g. wells really did build a time machine and jack the ripper got into it and traveled to the present day? i' ll admit to a total weakness for this particular brand of baloney. all a
what if
movie needs to win me over are some lush costumes and production design, a smart casting choice or two, and a really ridiculous basic idea. death defying acts obliges on all fronts .
i' m not sure why i failed to be swept up in all this. period pictures are tricky and this one is so stagey that the past really does seem like another country, where emotions are muffled by time and the events before you can only be viewed from a polite distance. for all the flair with which houdini' s death - defying acts are filmed, they never come near to raising the pulse rate .
skiffington recently completed a six - week stint teaching guy pearce how to perform some of harry houdini' s illusions for a new gillian armstrong movie called death defying acts. he was the consultant on magic for bell shakespeare' s touring production of the comedy of errors and the disney musical beauty and the beast. when pamela rabe needed to learn a few tricks for the sydney theatre company' s the cherry orchard, skiffington got the call .
perhaps the movie' s nuttiest idea is that houdini would search for a genuine medium by auditioning vaudeville acts rather than, say, attending seances by mediums .
programs of one - act plays are usually a risky business in the commercial theater. with the end of each segment and the start of the next, the program starts and stops throughout the evening. momentum can slow; attention may wander .
death defying acts
is so cannily constructed that it successfully builds from its comparatively quiet, spookily funny beginning ,
an interview ,
through the alternately desperate and hilarious
hotline ,
to the riotous revelations of marital betrayals in
central park west .
fortunately, these flaws go little way to diminish the genre - defying juggernaut ‘death of a bachelor’ has proved to be. and at the centre of panic at the disco’s best album yet is urie himself. the charisma and eccentricity of the front man, matched by his jaw - dropping vocal acrobatics sees urie finally become the ringmaster of his own circus .
in the acting categories, colin farrell and brendan gleeson have both been nominated for their turns in martin mcdonagh’s ‘in bruges’ along with comedian dylan moran (a film with me in it) and michael fassbender (hunger). actresses in a leading role include tribeca - winner eileen walsh (eden), jenn murray (dorothy), newcomer kelly o’neill (kisses) and oscar nominee saoirse ronan (city of ember). this marks a double nomination for saoirse who has also been nominated in the supporting actress category for ‘death defying acts’ .
the setup is obvious from the outset, and so is the punch line (asked why he is damned, the interviewer says the lawyer made two critical errors in life: ”you passed the bar and you neglected to live forever”). but there is something death - defying in the nervy back - pedaling and second - guessing of guilfoyle’s savvy but sinking lawyer .
to be accurate about it ,
death defying acts
is really two extended sketches: mr. mamet' s
interview
and ms. may' s
hotline ,
which are the program' s first half, and mr. allen' s fully developed, farcical one - act comedy ,
central park west ,
which concludes the program after intermission. though each playwright has a distinctive voice, a unifying theme is provided by the kind of late - 20th - century urban desperation that prompts everything from benign smiles to belly laughs .
as far as i' m concerned, guy pearce, who stars as houdini in gillian armstrong' s death defying acts, has a hard act to follow - although it has to be said he looks the part rather more than curtis did. i don' t think houdini was endowed with the pearce cheekbones, which seem to grow a little sharper every year, but the hairstyle, which ripples across his scalp in intricate corrugations, looks about right and he certainly projects the intensity needed by anyone who makes a living out of being chained up and hurled into deep water .
duo sifolini, who are recognised as one of the most dangerous acts in the circus world, have brought along their giant space wheel – which will see them perform 15 metres above the ground without any safety aids .
it doesn’t take a genius to see that woody allen’s “central park west” is not only the longest but also by far the strongest of the three one - act plays that make up “death defying acts” in its off broadway tryout at the stamford center for the arts’ rich forum. so why undermine it by preceding it with a minor david mamet fragment and an overwritten elaine may sketch that, at the performance seen, sent some members of the audience out the door before they even sampled the allen? wouldn’t it be wiser to beg allen for another one - acter to accompany his existing piece, or even offer the 70 - minute “central park west” by itself ?
even if you loved the recent miniwave of period films about magicians (the illusionist and the prestige), you won' t necessarily fall for death defying acts. it' s gentler and hokier than those movies, less concerned with the mechanics of magic than it is with the psychology of the men or women behind the tricks (and it doesn' t have a lot new to say about that, either). still, there' s something touching about this movie' s belief in its own outlandish central premise, which comes down, in the end, to a bit of stargazing wish - fulfillment. what if harry houdini came to town, and a two - bit scammer managed to trick the ultimate trickster into falling in love ?
“death defying acts” opens, in complete silence, with mamet’s “an interview. ” the silence is eventually broken by one of the two men sitting at an almost bare table stage center, robin wagner ’s high - tech sliding panels and peter kaczorowski’s chilly lighting adding to the kafkaesque atmosphere. an attorney (paul guilfoyle) is being interviewed by an attendant (gerry becker) whose modus operandi is to keep movement and speech to a minimum. this unsettles the attorney to the point where he loses his cool. the typically mamet dialogue revolves around whether the attorney borrowed a lawn mower when he was young and then buried it, and injecting such obvious lines as “there’s no such thing as randomness, ””what is truth? ” and “are you saying there are no honest lawyers? ”
] it wasn' t death that scared mr. houdini. he' d been diving into deep water all his life. what scared him was the truth. it wasn' t his body that was in chains, it was his heart .
“nurturing new talent is a key objective of the irish film board and the rising star award acts as an excellent showcase of talent both in front of and behind the camera. this year’s nominees have all broken through in significant films and we are delighted to see their talent and recent achievements recognised in the award. ”
‘death of a bachelor’ is a record that comes full circle on panic’s evolution. with the revolving door of members closed for now, frontman urie is finally free to take songwriting duties completely into his own hands - and it seems no coincidence that this album is all the better for it .
if you missed the “america’s got talent” season 12 premiere tuesday night, you didn’t see demian aditya risk his life in this death - defying escape act (watch above). the four - minute clip has gone viral, with over 2. 6 million clicks at youtube within the past day. for only the second time in his life, aditya was tasked with escaping from shackles before the 900 pounds of sand above him dropped and buried him alive. when judge howie mandel asks the 36 - year - old from jakarta, indonesia if he’s willing to risk his life, aditya responds, “for ‘america’s got talent’? yes. ”
while on tour in scotland, the world’s most famous magician, harry houdini (guy pearce), sets out to prove whether psychics can really communicate with the dead. he still mourns the death of his beloved mother, and offers $ 10, 000 to anyone who can contact her from beyond the grave .
during harry houdini' s tour of britain in 1926, the master escapologist enters into a passionate affair with a scottish psychic. the psychic and her daughter attempt to con houdini during a highly publicized séance to contact his mother whose death has haunted him for many years. however all does not go to plan ...
during harry houdini' s tour of britain in 1926, the master escapologist enters into a passionate affair with a scottish psychic. the psychic and her daughter attempt to con houdini during a highly publicized séance to contact his mother whose death has haunted him for many years. however all does not go to plan... written by anonymous
this is the story of the great harry houdini as he arrives in edinburgh for the grand finale of his world tour in 1926. while his ingenious near - death escape stunts enrapture audiences, houdini is more intrigued by notions of the afterlife. he offers a prize to anyone who can contact the dead and reveal the last words uttered by his dying mother .
takes the punch in the stomach story to a new mythic level by having houdini struck in public and dropping dead on the spot. the so credited
montreal student
, played by justin flagg, shouts
trick or treat
before he delivers the fatal blow. the punch, and houdini' s problematic appendix, are set - up throughout the film, but the depiction of his sudden death seems a bit lazy .
his movie from gillian armstrong begins with an ingenious and entertaining idea. harry houdini, the great escape artist, was famously devoted to his mother and distraught at her death; he was also noted for his debunking of so - called spiritualists and table - rappers. what if a spiritualist claimed to be in touch with houdini' s mother? would houdini' s oedipal anguish somehow be transformed into the credulity that he had spent his life denouncing? guy pearce plays houdini ;
well, that may be, but i wouldn' t have known if they hadn' t told me. what is clear is that houdini is flirting with death even more passionately than he' s flirting with zeta - jones. he has a reckless habit of inviting burly members of the crowd to cluster around him and punch him as hard as they can - an act of bravado calculated to enhance the myth of his invincibility. instead, it' s afflicted him with severe gut - ache .
sounding intriguing enough in concept, “death” misses the mark onscreen in a way adaptations of deceptively cinematic novels often do. yet it’s an original script — one that, for long in its development history (it was written by tony grisoni and brian ward), didn’t involve houdini at all, which may explain why the mix of a real - life legend and fictive personnel never quite gels. the former feels diminished and the latter contrived, neither lifting off the page into any kind of real dramatic life .
deaf singer mandy harvey, escape artist demian aditya, former pop star johnny emmanuel and amazing acts more take the tonight stage to fight for america’s votes on america’s got talent ‘s live show! first up on the show was dance crew brobots & mandroidz. after their intricate and clearly very rehearsed performance, howie mandel said he wasn’t getting a “wow! ” from them, but the other judges were so impressed, with mel b even saying, “i need to find me a man who can move like that! ” lol! it was definitely a great way to start the show !
performing “the death drop, ” escape artist demian aditya had us all on the edge of our seats for the third time. stapled into a suspended wooden box and handcuffed to metal rods outside of the box, demian needed to escape as a blowtorch lit up rope that held demian and the box up. however, the box began to drop and got caught due to another “technical difficulty. ” the drama didn’t stop there, people! simon compared the disastrous performance to mel b’s recently failed marriage, which caused mel to pour water on simon and then storm out! yikes… .
i do not know why this film is flushed with negative reviews. first of all this is not a film about houdini, there is no reason why this film should dramatically display the amazing acts and potentials of the artist himself; secondly, i do not see why' there is no reason for the creation of this movie' is justifiable, this film is just a testimony on how characters carry on with their lives and that itself is enough to make a film meaningful... in fact films like' atonement' (where the girl is also in) deserves this statement better where everything is just so fake. third, i haven' t watch the illusionist but i have to say this is richer in detail, and thus better than the prestige - - a film which displays too much magic' action' but no depth to the characters or the plot at all, like an eggshell without the yoke inside... lastly, this is a decent film where everything is well - made, well presented, well acting performances (exception of catherine' s dramatically' fake' acting at times), and a good score
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the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
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pretty but dull, with unconvincing turns from zeta - jones and pearce. if you want a period magician movie, seek out the prestige or the illusionist instead .
all in all, it' s a bit of a snore that falls back on romance when all else fails .
pearce' s boys - adventure take on the vaudeville legend is a hoot, though not nearly as laughable as the dialogue or zeta - jones' s pitiful attempts at basic emoting .
what the film loses in momentum as the romance takes over, it gains in sex appeal as its two attractive actors make their own kind of magic .
director gillian armstrong is more attentive to decor than the story, which never seems in a hurry to get anyplace in particular and concludes with a thud .
every line spoken is so austere that the characters seem like they' re acting in straitjackets. but it' s the audience that will be most desperate to escape .
it' s a shame that the story itself feels like smoke and mirrors with nowhere to go, wanting to have its cake and eat it too .
any magic is instantly dispelled by the dead hand of a tirelessly pouting zeta - jones, whose slap boasts more layers than her talent .
it' s a movie that seems to have been lavished with care and performed with gusto, yet its tale of fakery sounds its own knell: there' s not a believable moment in it .
this seemed destined for a main stream release and it has all the features of a generally popular film. for some reason, it never got that full hollywood treatment so only a few of us got to see this mediocre gem with few shining parts .
a fictitious account of harold houdini. it focuses on a love he has for a woman that claims to be psychic. unfortunately the film is void of any real engagement or excitement. zeta - jones is fine, but never for a single second did i believe she was going to screw over houdini. this left me with a rather predictable love story that i was hoping would hurry along. there was never a real sense of wonderment at houdini' s tricks, and the film tried to hard to pull away his showbiz facade. we are left with an interesting and emotionally frail man, but since it isn' t juxtaposed against how he was perceived it wasn' t particularly interesting. saoirse ronan shows why she is becoming a fantastic lead actress, but the majority of this just never peaks that high .
overall this really is a pleasant and enjoyable film, but it is incredibly typical. there is nothing particuarly special about it, nor does it do anything unexpected. it is mediocre to the very end, but at the same time decent to watch. i picked this up because saoise ronan was in it, and she is so young and tiny! and at the same time, she is just as great and confincing as the rest of the cast. the film is extreamely atmospheric, that is the main thing that stood out to me. well, and the score is decent. other than that, everything is just... okay. the story is inoffensive, the acting is decent, the direction seems competant enough, but nothing is that extraordinary. i just wish there was more to grab ahold of, to rave or whine about. i would even like some major flaws if there were some killer virtues to go with them. i had never heard of this movie until actually watching it, and i cannot help but thing that there is a reason for that. so, i really cannot say that i recommend it, but at the same time i do not not recommend it... it is an odd blend. the film is decent enough, but you really are wasting your time in watching it. there is nothing to make you think, or make you feel. you will not be stimulated at all .
i was surprised that i have never head of this film before watching it. overall, this was an entertaining movie. i enjoyed watching it, even thought there is not too much beneath the surface. this movie was a little drawn out at the end, but still, i thought it was better than most critics have given it credit for .
see the box office tab (domestic) and international tab (international and worldwide) for more cumulative box office records .
for a description of the different acting role types we use to categorize acting perfomances, see our glossary .
a slower week in terms of first run releases with a second tier summer release topping that particular list. however, there are a few other releases that are more interesting, including the
, but the latter is better than the former. while that release is the dvd pick of the week, two non - dvd releases are worth mentioning above the fold :
. it goes without saying that it was another busy week in terms of total dvds on this week' s list, so much so that it had to be split into two. the second part of the list can be found
showed strength during its expansion, which helped it take first place on the per theater chart with an average of $ 13, 088 in 19 theaters. the overall box office leader ,
, was the only other film to top $ 10, 000 on the per theater chart with an average of $ 10, 780 .
this week' s round of new casting information contains updates for four christmases, my sister' s keeper, quarantined, and more! more ...
all time domestic box office for weinstein co. movies (rank 101 - 200 )
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the veteran illusionist ross skiffington is the magician actors call on. the 58 - year - old studied drama, but has worked as a professional conjuror for the past 40 years. now he often helps thespians who need to deceive, baffle and bewilder an audience .
it' s always a joy to work with actors ,
he says .
there' s a famous quote from jean eugene robert - houdin [ the pioneer of modern illusionism ] who said' a magician is an actor playing the role of a magician'. actors are all magicians in a sense; they understand how to misdirect an audience and how to play things on several levels .
skiffington recently worked his magic on are you there? , an adaptation of argentinian playwright javier daulte' s two - hander which opens at the ensemble theatre tomorrow night. australian director ros horin saw the play on a trip to buenos aires two years ago and knew immediately she wanted to produce it in sydney .
are you there? concerns a struggling magician and his partner who move into a new house, only to discover it' s inhabited by a ghost. skiffington spent several weeks teaching its stars, paula arundell and socratis otto, some tricks which appear to bring the invisible spectre to life. both proved able students .
socratis has to make a silk [ hanky ] appear and disappear at one point ,
says skiffington .
when i did it for him the first time, the look on his face was of total astonishment - and that' s the way it should be .
horin says the play is
about love and intimacy - or rather the difficulty of achieving it - and the need for magic in our lives as well as in theatre
.
arundell feared the lessons would spoil her enjoyment of magic. otto was more enthusiastic .
i' m no good at sports ,
he says .
so if i' ve got a few magic tricks up my sleeve people might start to take a bit more notice .
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on a tour of britain in 1926, harry houdini enters into a passionate affair with a psychic out to con the famous magician .
trippy indie madeline' s madeline is the movie that lakeith stanfield and boots riley from sorry to bother you want to see the most .
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a writer' s need to maintain an appropriate amount of professional
distance
from his or her subject; the journalist in question here is giovanni, a late adolescent with a flair for journalistic correspondence .
a young woman, kidnapped when she was a child, returns home to the family she barely remembers and struggles to feel at home .
a mother falls for a younger man while her daughter falls in love for the first time. mother nature messes with their fates .
two teenage assassins accept what they think will be a quick - and - easy job, until an unexpected target throws them off their plan .
a guitarist who played for the greatest italian artists but without fame, decides to disappear to become famous .
the life of a top chef changes when she becomes the guardian of her young niece .
when the heiress of a luxury hotel chain is kidnapped at her rat trap motel outside detroit by a band of ruthless sex traffickers because she has seen too much, her oppressed assistant must figure out a way to rescue her .
in the scene when harry is dressing (shortly after his arrival in his edinburgh hotel room) he starts to put on his braces (suspenders). in one shot they are partially unfastened but in the next shot (a close - up) they are securely fastened .
] when i was very small, i had a gift. i saw things other folk did nae see. it was like looking into deep water and seein' things on the other side. as i grew up, the gift vanished, just like my mam said it would. and i saw the world as it really was - with all its sweet lies and trickery. the the great houdini came into our lives, and changed everything forever .
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during harry houdini' s tour of britain in 1926, the master escapologist enters into a passionate affair with a scottish psychic .
gillian armstrong' s new feature film starring catherine zeta - jones and guy pearce, releasing in australian cinemas march 13. when famous escape artist harry houdini arrives in edinburgh and offers a $ 10, 000 reward to anyone who can contact his mother from beyond the grave, a beautiful but deceptive psychic and her young' sidekick' daughter take the challenge. as houdini spends time with this mysterious woman, he is beguiled by her charms, and what begins as a con evolves into a far more complicated and dangerous affair .
is the cunning, predatory minx with a music - hall mind - reading turn who thinks that houdini, however grand, will be susceptible to her wiles. but, however intriguing, the movie is over - schematic, slow - moving and over - furnished. it never seems to come alive with any believable interplay of characters; the movie locks itself into a watertight tank of a premise, and the handcuffs won' t come off .
© 2018 guardian news and media limited or its affiliated companies. all rights reserved .
mary and benji' s half - baked scam is soon exposed, but houdini takes a shine to the scruffy, resourceful pair and even believes (or is he just pretending to believe ?) in mary' s paranormal gifts—a faith not shared by his cranky manager, mr. sugarman (the ever - welcome timothy spall). houdini sets up the mcgarvies in a posh hotel suite near his own, encouraging them to spy all they want, confident that they' ll never uncover those last words. meanwhile, he expensively courts the dubious mary, who can' t figure out the great magician' s motives. surely it' s not possible that he' s actually falling for her ?
the australian director gillian armstrong is best known here for launching the young judy davis on the world in my brilliant career (1979). no such launch pad is needed for saoirse ronan, the 13 - year - old irish actress who already had her breakout role last year as the chilly little psychopath in atonement. but even more than in atonement, ronan struck me in this film as a major talent who may be able to make the transition from child to adult actress. (next year, she' ll play the lead role in peter jackson' s adaptation of the lovely bones .) her face is so vibrant and responsive, you want to grab her and cast her as every famous heroine of girls' literature—anne of green gables, harriet the spy, mary in the secret garden —before she hits puberty .
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harry houdini (guy pearce) has an affair with a scottish con artist (catherine zeta - jones) who claims she knows the final words houdini' s mother spoke on her deathbed .
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the sydney morning herald: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from australia' s leading newspaper. skip directly to: search box, section navigation, content. text version .
the sydney morning herald: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from australia' s leading newspaper .
gillian armstrong' s houdini movie lacks a certain magic, despite the sexual heat .
genre drama run time 115 minutes rated pg country united states director gillian armstrong actors catherine zeta - jones, guy pearce, timothy spall, saoirse ronan. rating stars - 3
for me, harry houdini is forever tony curtis, who played the great escape artist in a bio - pic i saw as a child. he may have worn tights in the role. in those days, curtis rarely appeared in anything else .
offstage, he' s just as busy. in his unbound moments, curtis' s houdini had janet leigh to flirt with. pearce' s houdini has catherine zeta - jones. you may not be surprised to learn that the script does quite a bit of tinkering with the facts of houdini' s life. zeta - jones portrays a made - up character called mary mcgarvie, who ekes out a living in music halls by posing as a psychic with her partner in crime, her 12 - year - old daughter, benji. benji is played by saoirse ronan, exhibiting the same aplomb she displayed in atonement, but this time it comes with charm. much of the story is told from her point of view .
the year is 1926 and we' re in edinburgh - although it' s an edinburgh that bears only a casual relationship to the real thing. houdini, accompanied by his hard - headed minder, mr sugarman (timothy spall in a serious mood), books into the city' s grandest hotel, taking a suite that could double as the wing of a ruritanian palace, while mary and benji, who have fallen on hard times, make do with an abandoned cottage which looks as if it was previously occupied by hansel and gretel. there is such a soft edge to the lighting that crucial parts of the action seem to take place in a scottish mist .
the script was initially devised without houdini as a story about the art of the con trick. the writers, tony grisoni and brian ward, say they wanted to explore the idea that audiences who patronise magic shows want so much to be taken in that they readily conspire with the conjurer to overlook the fakery. houdini was a later addition to the plot and with him came a different psychological theme - the notion that he was sublimating love by tying himself up with ropes and chains .
not surprisingly, given this morbid streak in his make - up, he' s begun to be obsessed by the question of whether there' s an afterlife. and since he' s a showman, he makes this obsession public. on his arrival in edinburgh, he puts up a prize of $ us10, 000 to anyone who can communicate with his dead mother .
mary mcgarvie is bold enough to make a bid for the prize and as soon as houdini lays eyes on her, he' s predictably intrigued - to the chagrin of sugarman, who definitely does know a con when he sees one .
yet there' s nothing he can do about it. he and the precociously insightful benji are left to sit on the sidelines tossing barbed remarks at one another while mary and houdini set about falling in love. and they look extremely photogenic doing it. they tango and fox - trot together while gazing soulfully into one another' s eyes and they generate such heat that mary belatedly discovers her finer feelings .
i know it' s nostalgia talking but in my mind curtis' s houdini still remains the one to beat .
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release date: july 11 director: gillian armstrong writers: tony grisoni, brian ward cinematographer: haris zambarloukos starring: catherine zeta - jones, guy pearce, saoirse ronan studio / run time: the weinstein company, 97 mins .
all centered around stage magicians and were geared towards the art - house crowd .
could have been lumped into that group and no one would have batted an eye .
catherine zeta - jones plays a vaudeville medium looking to swindle $ 10, 000 off houdini by telling him what his mother spoke to him on her deathbed .
during this attempt they fall in love, much to the bemusement of houdini’s manager and the medium’s child .
it’s competently acted, competently directed and, given the constraints of its story, competently written .
but excepting experimental films, plot is a key reason we watch movies. without an interesting one, an hour and a half of competent filmmaking becomes about an hour and 25 minutes of boredom .
from its predecessors is that the earlier films all had a focus on plot that drove characters’ interior quests forward and let magic act as a metaphor for dealing with reality .
forgets this aspect and, for better or for worse, throws all of its interest at characters .
if the plot sounds in summary mostly like an excuse for a typical period melodrama, that’s because the magic and mysticism is merely a macguffin for telling the film' s conventional love story .
because of this, the characters are well - conceived, and, additionally, well - acted .
but with so little story behind them, their minor dalliances never become important enough on their own to warrant interest .
likewise, the film is very well - shot and at moments, beautiful, but nevertheless extremely sterile .
it takes an incredible level of craftsmanship to achieve this feeling, but here, this hands - off approach fails to inject passion where it in such dire need .
30 performances that re - made (women’s) history (1992 - 2012) by shannon m. houston march 29, 2012
exclusive: watch m. ward sing
sad sad song
in elvis presley' s car in the king clip by ellen johnson july 6, 2018
to make a film about houdini. it opts for fiction over fact, spiritualism over magic and escapes, and incident over biography. it even omits houdini' s name from the title. what the filmmakers thought would be the
hook
of this movie is beyond me, except that it starred catherine zeta - jones .
is not without merit, and it was good to see houdini in any form back on the big screen, if only for one week .
was more about the role of the fictional mary mcgarvie than houdini. this was clear when the project was first announced in the trades as
in 2005. at that time, rachel weisz was set for the co - starring role. weisz even said she believed she might be related to houdini! but even with the casting of guy pearce as houdini the project would have trouble getting off the ground until catherine zeta - jones, fresh off her oscar win for
, took over the role of mary, reportedly agreeing to a pay cut that
saved the film .
tells the fictional story of houdini' s obsessive search for a medium who can prove communication with the dead (and his mother) during a tour of scotland in 1926. houdini discovers mcgarvie, a scottish music hall clairvoyant, who along with her young daughter, benji (nicely played by saoirse ronan), manipulates matters to get inside houdini' s cloistered world. ultimately the two tricksters fall in love .
the film was shot in edinburgh (where it is set) and in london' s savoy hotel. much was made by the british tabloid press about an
to star zeta - jones when a member of the crew accidentally stepped on her toe .
reported that ,
it virtually took the toenail clean off .
executive producer dan lupovitz threw cold water on the story by saying ,
it was as minor incident which hardly disrupted filming. she' s fine .
in the film, guy pearce plays houdini as a bit of a primadonna who berates hotel porters and barks at his (fictional) manager, mr. sugarman (timothy spall). pearce also effects a husky, gravelly voice. the result is the least likable houdini of them all, although pearce certainly looks the part with a very houdini - like physique (although he' s the houdini of 1906 rather than 1926). says pearce :
there’s footage of houdini and there’s audio stuff of him, but i decided to go in a completely different direction and really just work off what my own imaginative response was to the script anyway, i think, rather than really just trying to channel somebody .
is the outstanding production design by gemma jackson. the opening bridge jump in sydney harbor is truly evocative of the period. many authentic houdini photos are recreated with pearce' s likeness. houdini' s stationary is even accurately reproduced. the chinese water torture cell is nicely recreated, although pearce' s patter is hokey and its conclusion, with pearce lounging across the top like a beach boy, seems out of character. while bess does not appear in the film, her photograph does. oddly, the filmmakers elected not to use a photo of the real bess, but a photo of an unknown actress. who is this
for once a hollywood film does not portray houdini as dying in the water torture cell. however
was financed through the australian film finance corp. , bbc films and myriad pictures. after it was completed, the weinstein company bought the film after viewing a promo reel at the american film market, paying a reported $ 5. 5 million for limited distribution rights. myriad pictures had already sold distribution rights in the u. k. to lionsgate .
at the state theater in sydney australia on march 10, 2008. a vip after - party was held at the zeta bar at the sydney hilton. the film never saw a wide theatrical release in the u. s. instead, the film played for only one week in two theaters: the landmark’s sunshine cinema in new york and manns chinese theater 6 in hollywood (where i saw it on july 11, 2008).
death defying acts is a 2007 british-australian supernatural romance film , directed by gillian armstrong , and starring guy pearce and catherine zeta-jones . it concerns an episode in the life of hungarian-american escapologist harry houdini at the height of his career in the 1920s . it was screened in a special presentation at the 2007 toronto international film festival . 
death defying acts is a 2007 british-australian supernatural romance film, directed by gillian armstrong, and starring guy pearce and catherine zeta-jones. it concerns an episode in the life of hungarian-american escapologist harry houdini at the height of his career in the 1920s. it was screened in a special presentation at the 2007 toronto international film festival.
death defying acts is a 2007 british-australian supernatural romance film, directed by gillian armstrong, and starring guy pearce and catherine zeta-jones. it concerns an episode in the life of hungarian-american escapologist harry houdini at the height of his career in the 1920s. it was screened in a special presentation at the 2007 toronto international film festival.