Red Lights (2012)

Red Lights is a thriller about a pair of paranormal investigators, professors at a prestigious university apparently, who specialize in defrauding practitioners of paranormal activity. When a famous blind psychic emerges from a 30-year stint in obscurity showing all the major signs that supernatural phenomena is a real thing, they become consumed in uncovering the truth about the origins of his power. Strange things happen to the investigators as they attempt to uncover the blind man’s secrets: birds smash into windows, electronic equipment spontaneously explodes, and perfectly innocent spoons get bent while they sit idly in half-filled coffee cups. They must ultimately examine whether E.S.P. is real as a result.

This movie is meh. The performances feel very dry, with relationships between characters changing primarily off-screen in favor of moar pseudo-sciency exposition and mystery build-up. There’s too much focus on the pseudo-science I think. Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver have very little positive chemistry during most of their time together, DeNiro is some kind of big villain without having been established as such in any meaningful way, and Cillian’s girlfriend is handled incredibly poorly–she’s, like a student in their class I guess? But then they’re sleeping together? When did that happen? Was I messing around with my phone during the obligatory ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ love scene?

Tiny details like this are passed over in favor of building up some kind of mystery about how Robert DeNiro is some kind of dangerous, magical blind dude. I suppose that we don’t need to know about how Cillian plays with others really but, if you see the movie all the way through, it suddenly becomes a little bit more important when it goes to tie things up. Speaking of DeNiro’s character, he’s supposed to be incredibly charismatic. Instead, he is some kind of weirdo with a Shakespearean complex that’s too big for his britches. I’m sure that’s what they are going for, but the way this plot and its concepts were handled was a complete flatline for me.

One last thought: do universities really have paranormal research and investigation departments that also hold classes? That. Sounds. AWESOME! How do I get in on that business?

C+