BEFORE: A couple biopics in a loose chain are going to see me through until my upcoming break - I'm certainly not going to start another big topic with three days to go until Comic-Con. There may not be a connection between Charles Darwin and Harry Houdini, but it's sort of my job to find one. Speaking of connections, Toby Jones from "Creation" also supplied the voice of Dobby the house-elf in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1", which also starred Timothy Spall (last seen in "The King's Speech"), who's in tonight's film.
THE PLOT: On a tour of Britain in 1926, Harry Houdini enters into a passionate affair with a psychic out to con the famous magician.
AFTER: Luckily, this does sort of connect with the themes brought up in last night's film - the question of an afterlife, which both fascinated and confounded Houdini. You have to appreciate that the man who was known as a master showman and illusion practically demanded to know whether the supernatural was real, or just a series of parlor tricks. As he traveled around the world, he took the time to debunk mediums and psychics and various charlatans - I guess it takes one to know one.
But this film suggests that at the same time, he was desperate to believe that there was something after death, for he was still grieving the loss of his mother. He offered a cash prize for anyone who could contact her in the great beyond and repeat her final words to him. And that's where I think a true agnostic/skeptic should stand on religion - we want to believe in it, but we also demand some kind of proof. It seems like Houdini was playing both sides, but I can see where he was coming from.
He also stated that if there were an afterlife, he would find a way to get a message back from the spirit world, one that everyone would be able to understand. Still waiting on that.
The film has a great deal of ambiguity about Houdini's intent after he comes to Scotland and crosses paths with Mary McGarvie, who works a psychic stage act that relies heavily on information garnered from pickpocketing and the local obituaries. While other psychics continued to make bad guesses about Mom's last words, McGarvie played it cool, and appeared to have Houdini convinced of her abilities.
Or was it possible that Houdini was wise to her con, and got her ensnared in a game of his own? Maybe he saw in her a kindred spirit, or was starting to develop genuine romantic feelings - though it gets a little muddled about who's zooming who, I kind of like it that way. You can choose for yourself who's the player and who's getting played, or third option, just enjoy it as a love story.
If there's anything missing, however, it's some kind of message - some point to it all. What, exactly, am I supposed to take away from seeing this specific series of events? I say this in the most constructive way possible, when you tell a story, you really need to make sure that there is a reason to tell it. I'm just not seeing it tonight. It's interesting to note that this film was released one year after "The Prestige" and "The Illusionist", so maybe there was a run on magician-based films, however, both of those films were better constructed, and secured higher ratings from me.
Also starring Guy Pearce (last seen in "The Road"), Catherine Zeta-Jones (last seen in "The Phantom"), Saorsie Ronan (last seen in "The Lovely Bones").
RATING: 5 out of 10 newsreels
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