Psychologist Dr Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her prot�g� physicist Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) debunk fake psychics and purveyors of fake ESP, poltergeist phenomena and the like. When renowned blind psychic Simon Silver comes out of retirement for a major high profile (and money spinning) series of theatrical events, Buckley wants to go for him, but Margaret is not so keen. The hook for this movie is whether or not Silver's psychic powers are genuine, or whether his simply another fake, and the audience is kept guessing (and kept guessing very well) for the length of the movie. But there are other good things here - the story never proceeds exactly as you expect it to, there are some very unexpected turns in the path taken, and you are kept engaged all the way through, with a satisfying ending. It must be said that once you think about it for 10 minutes afterwards, the whole thing falls to pieces, but that doesn't diminish the enjoyment you got from it while it was in progress. Weaver is good - probably as good as she has ever been - De Niro is solid, and Murphy is OK, albeit somewhat hamstrung by what the plot requires Buckley's character to be. Elizabeth Olsen and Toby Jones are both good in supporting roles. There is an unpleasantly violent sequence towards the end, which went beyond what I felt was necessary to achieve its purpose but, otherwise, I enjoyed the telling of this story.

Starring:

Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and Cillian Murphy

Genre:

Drama, Horror, Thriller