As Simon Silver, a blind psychic with Uri Geller-style spoon-bending abilities, Mr. De Niro is both the film’s red herring and its sinister centerpiece, a pulpy excuse for the plot’s supernatural excesses. Before Silver hijacks the plot, Rodrigo Cortés’s smart, talky screenplay and tense direction hold our attention, as much for the unpredictability of the story as the ease with which Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy slide into their roles. Playing a pair of skeptical scientists who investigate paranormal events, smugly debunking as they go, this ghostbusting team seems more than ready for prime time.
But just when they’re on the homestretch, their carefully nurtured science-versus-superstition quest is derailed by elaborate pyrotechnics and a bathroom brawl of such punishing realism that I feared for Mr. Murphy’s cheekbones. Until then Mr. Cortés (who made “Buried,” the highly effective, man-in-a-box thriller) and his photographer, Xavi Giménez, paint a darkly troubled world haunted by creepy street people and wily charlatans. They should have known that a levitating De Niro was simply a séance too far.
- Movie Review: Male Psychic Meets Female Ghostbusters, The New York Times, July 12, 2017.
About the author:
Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.
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