Red Lights Movie Review 271

Red Lights is a 2012 thriller directed by Rodrigo Cortes(Buried) and starring Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro.There are spoilers ahead so be warned!

Dr. Margaret Matheson(Weaver) and her assistant Tom Buckley(Murphy) are paranormal investigators who work in a university and go around trying to find out if so called supernatural occurrences are real.A world renowned blind psychic, Simon Silver(De Niro) is making a comeback after he stopped living in the public eye due to the death of one of his fiercest critics years ago at one of his shows. Margaret is reluctant to investigate him as she had a previous experience with him that left her unnerved. She tells Tom that he shouldn't have anything to do with him either. Tom doesn't want to leave it at that. He wants to find out if Silver is a genuine psychic or just another fraud. Helen dies of a mysterious disease and Tom is wondering if Silver had something to do with it. He becomes obsessed with the psychic.

The university where he works invite Silver to participate in tests designed to see if he is a fake. Tom is there and he meets Silver. Strange things happen to Tom such as birds flying into windows and his machines exploding and he wonders if it is Silver trying to get at him. The tests come out clean and it seems as if Silver is the real deal. Tom is sure that he isn't and he tries to come up with something to discredit him. His girlfriend, Sally(Elizabeth Olsen) finds some evidence that Silver is faking it but Tom has already gone to Silver's last show before his retirement. He gets beaten up in the bathroom by some guy who is somehow linked to Silver.

Tom stumbles out of the bathroom and he confronts the psychic who warns him not to mess with him.
It turns out that Silver is not blind after all. He has been able to see hence his success in the tests. Tom exposes him in front of the audience. He is disgraced and when the whole place starts to explode and the lights turn on and off it is apparent that it is not Silver who is the one with powers, it is Tom. Tom realises that he was denying what was in front of him. He had not been ready to embrace his gift. He wishes that he could have told Margaret that there are things that cannot be explained.

This movie was interesting. I liked Murphy in the lead role. He is a very good actor and Irish too! Weaver was good as the doctor and De Niro was great as the weird psychic. All in all, this was a good movie with good acting and the story was very interesting. I would recommend it if you like a decent thriller.
I am giving this a 7/10.