Review of Red Lights (2012) by Jeffrey M — 17 Nov 2012

Reading the synopsis for Red Lights, and seeing the cast list, one might think it offers a smart, interesting, and unique take on paranormal phenomena and the societal repercussions for those that fake it. You would be wrong. Red Lights is plagued by an incredibly unfocused script, with stilted (and comically verbose) dialogue, stupid plot twists, and terribly written scenes.

The direction and composition is particularly bad, with erratic editing, making the scenes seem manically unfocused, and the entire narrative feel remarkably disjointed. Aside from some good cinematography work, the film has no polish. It's as if it was put together on a laptop by a film student.

The acting is serviceable, but the cast has nothing to work with. Cillian Murphy seems especially in to his role, but has such a poorly written character, and an apparent lack of direction, that his character's tone is all over the map. The same is true of De Niro's character, with poor De Niro reduced to giving horrendously scripted non-nonsensical monologues, to no effect.

The result is just a badly executed, terribly written, and ill-conceived film. It borders on the "so bad its good" territory, but doesn't quite get there, if only because it features names such as Sigourney Weaver and De Niro, and has the occasional competent scene. A disappointing misfire.

2/4 Stars.