Movie review: Red Lights

Poster for Red Lights

Psychologist Margaret Matheson and her assistant Tom Buckley study paranormal phenomena. Professional skeptics, Matheson and Buckley have debunked dozens of fraudulent mind readers, ghost hunters, faith healers and the like by detecting what Matheson calls ‘red lights’, subtle clues to the trickery behind each of these ‘supernatural’ occurrences. When Tom Buckley gets on the trail of Simon Silver, he can’t get let go. Whatever it takes, he needs to confront Silver.

Title: Red Lights
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy, Robert De Niro, Toby Jones
Year: 2012
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Mystery
IMDb Grade: 6.2
My Grade: 7.5

Seeing the movie the second time I can now truly say that on the one side I’m an idiot for not figuring out this movie halfway through the first time. At the other hand, now that I know what’s about to happen I can clearly see the pointers set up to drive you away from the ‘punch line’, if you will.

Margaret Mateson teaching a class

Sigourney Weaver is such a strong actress. In the scene where she explains what happened between her and Silver when they were younger, she is holding back sobs to keep on talking. The way that Weaver actually delivers the lines is so real that she only could’ve done it, if she was holding back actual sobs or is a very VERY skilled actress. And since we are talking about Sigourney, I have no doubt believing in any of the two.

Buckley and Matheson

A lot of people say that this is one of Robert De Niro’s ‘not-so-good-but-not-exactly-bad-either’ movies. At some points I agree, some of his tricks seem a little too played, too obvious. Like the scene were Buckley first attends Silver’s show and tries to find a source of ‘cheating’. The moment Buckley flips the switch on his machine, Silver turns toward the glass where Tom is standing behind, but the way he does it is just… Too obvious.

Furthermore, De Niro’s character Silver is supposed to be blind. That part of his role isn’t always too convincing. There are times where he too outright says he is cheating :”The handle was sticking out of your pocket for the last five minutes” and to me these lines immediately felt deceiving. Whereas Murphy’s line of “Because I’m psychic” feels completely real. You believe that Tom Buckley is just joking around.

Robert De Niro as the blind Simon Silver

I can’t take toby jones seriously. I have to laugh whenever I see him, eventhough he is a good actor. It’s mostly because he always looks the same, here and in the hunger games is not so different. He’s always gullible and kind but gets tricked one way or another because of that.

Toby Jones

This is, just like Sunshine, also a movie that ends with a monologue by Cillian Murphy’s character. I don’t exactly know why but those monologues always get to me. They make me shiver, sometimes make me tear up a little. I don’t know I’m just a weirdo like that;)

Buckley beat up during the voice over monologue

Birds that drop dead from the sky is never a good omen. Remember that!

Quotes from the movie:
Buckley: Time goes on. you think you have all the time in the world. but time goes on. In the end so much time has gone by and you know you should’ve done something. and then you wake up.

Margaret Matheson: There are two kinds of people out there with a special gift. The ones who really think they have some kind of power. And the other guys, who think we can’t figure them out. They’re both wrong.

Tom Buckley[to a sleeping Margaret]: Margaret. Margaret. Margaret.
Margaret Matheson: [waking] Yes?
Tom Buckley: You should get some sleep.

Simon Silver: If one observes and studies another person without having first studied oneself, how do we know whether out instruments are appropriately set? How do we know we are reliable? We have no proof. There’s only one way of gaining access to the truth, and that’s not to expect anything. If our intentions aren’t pure, we might end up creating monsters.

Simon Silver

Have you seen this movie? What did you think about it? Are you still planning on watching it? Let me know down below in the comments!;)

Xx
Christel

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