Review of Death Defying Acts

What a travesty ! Houdini's character and life is already fascinating enough, Why bother to fictionalise to such an extent with unconvincing characters and an unbelievable story ? Wrapping this poorly told and flimsy fabrication in a narration that belonged more in a Disney or Hallmark product than a film by a much - awarded and deservedly acclaimed director didn't help much either. Zeta - Jones and Ronan were unconvincing and severely lacking in chemistry as a mum and daughter. Pearce was excellent but there was a woeful lack of conviction in his relationship with both Zeta Jones and Ronan. Why would Houdini get involved with such an obvious con - artist partnership when he dedicated so much of his life to exposing fake mediums and psychics. The film also did great disservice to Houdini himself by showing that he deceived his audiences as willingly as the shysters he exposed. I saw this film last night at its Brisbane premiere and was frankly staggered by the extravagant compliments paid to it's director and the film itself by both her interviewer and audience members during the question and answer session following the screening. It's good to be polite but a little criticism wouldn't have gone astray, even in the director's presence. One brave soul did hazard to ask why fictionalise to such an extent and Gillian Armstrong replied that her film was more about the eternal truth of love than the great illusionist himself. She also seemed very eager to point out that she wasn't responsible for the script or the storyline. Compared to the 1953 film Houdini starring Tony Curtis, Death Defying Acts showed very little evidence of progress in over 50 years of commercial film making and certainly wasn't worthy of either it's leading man Guy Pearce or director Gillian Armstrong.