Review of Red Lights (2012) by The D — 23 Oct 2012

This is a quite silly & hammy paranormal tale. It could easily have qualified as one of the more whimsical epsiodes of The X-Files as Weaver's portrayal of Dr Margaret Matheson was a cynical Scully down to a tee, even the lingering thought that not every so called medium was a fraud & could always be scietifically debunked was evident.

The tale picks up with Simon Silver(De Niro) making a return to the limeight thirty years after his biggest critic had died from a heart attack at one of his shows. SIlver, a blind man, claims to have mind reading abilities and puts them on show to a gullable public. Here lies the films question, Fraud or not?

Matheson is reluctant to investigate Silver's return but her assistant Tom Buckley(Murphy) is determined to out Silver for the con man he believes him to be.

It's Murphy & De Niro that really carry the film throughout as Weaver & Jones barely feature long enough to warrant more than competent praise. Murphy's grit & determination see him putting himself at risk as well as his student partner Sally Owen(Olsen). De Niro on the other hand really hams it up during his stage shows, just right for the concept.

There are twists both expected and, shall we say, less than expected but overall it just leaves you a little indifferent to its outcome. A darker more sinister element really could have helped this to be really quite good but sadly it just fades from memory.