Death Defying Acts – 2007 | 97 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Written by Tony Grisoni and Brian Ward,Death Defying Acts blends fact with fiction and is set around the triumphant tour of Britain by revered escapologist Harry Houdini and the mysterious woman psychic he meets. The story was originally about a travelling circus rather than a music hall but was subsequently developed into a tale of Houdini and love and truth. Director Gillian Armstrong, an integral part of Australia’s new wave of film in the 1970s, crafts a film that is well-produced but she can do little with the flat script lacking in depth and deficient in on-screen chemistry. The film boasts a strong ensemble cast of actors including Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Timothy Spall and Irish actress Saoirse Ronan.

1926 – Houdini’s World Tour. World famous escapologist Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce) is wreathed in chains and submerged beneath the harbour. On the deck of a boat, his manager Mr Sugarman (Timothy Spall) anxiously watches the seconds tick away on a stop watch. Meanwhile in Edinburgh, on stage at McTavish’s music hall are Mary McGarvie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her 11-year-old daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan), who are transformed into the psychic double act “Princess Kali and her Dusky Disciple”.

Mary and Benji watch newsreel footage of Houdini’s world tour and learn he is grieving for his dead mother, and having developed an obsession with psychics, is offering $10,000 to any psychic who can reveal his mother’s dying words. Mary, determined to con Houdini, sets out to find out all she can. Dressed as a chambermaid she searches his rooms. On asimilar mission Benji is snooping around Houdini’s dressing room, but is caught by Sugarman and Harry. Benji tells them she is part of a psychic act. Harry gives her a ticket to his show. Meanwhile, Mary tears out a picture of Harry and his mother in the hall of records.

Mr Sugarman and Harry audition potential psychics, but it is only when Benji and Mary appear that Harry is confident he’s found the medium who can meet his challenge. Sugarman announces to the press that Houdini is to stage a psychic experiment. The final words of his mother are contained within a sealed envelope. Houdini intends to contact his mothers departed soul through a medium (Mary) who will reveal her final words.

Harry invites Mary for lunch, he toys with her and she is confused as to what he wants from her. Mary tries again to gain access to the mysterious trunk, but is caught snooping in Harry’s room. Mary feigns distress and claims she was looking for a personal item to help channel the “psychic energy”. The attraction deepens between Mary and Harry and he misses his intended show.

Sugarman tries to pay Mary to disappear.However she has her eye on the $10,000 and her growing feelings for Harry.Sugarman, determined to be rid of Mary, gives her the key to the trunk. It contains a wedding dress belonging to Harry’s mother and a photograph which reveals how much Mary looks like her. Shocked, Mary tells him that if he helpsher win the money by telling her the final words, she’ll go. Sugarman reveals that Harry wasn’t with his mother when she died and it’s his biggest regret.This revelation leaves Mary with the quandary: should she pursue the money or her love for Harry…