6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Psychologist Margaret Matheson and her assistant study paranormal activity, which leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic.
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Jones, Elizabeth Olsen, Robert De NiroThriller | 100% |
Mystery | 23% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It's hard to believe that nineteen years have passed since The X-Files first appeared on TV, but fans who remember its initial blast of chilly dislocation may appreciate what writer-director Rodrigo Cortés (Buried) attempted in Red Lights and, at moments, achieved. Like Chris Carter's influential series, Cortés' film is set in a parallel universe that resembles our own just enough to make its dramatic interplay between belief and skepticism compelling, but not so much as to interfere with the suspension of disbelief. Carter's FBI barely resembled the real one, and Cortés' version of academia, law enforcement and scam artists doesn't stand up to scrutiny either, but that's beside the point. Neither Carter nor Cortés was interested in realism. The film's title refers to "discordant notes"—warning signs, giveaways, inconsistencies—that alert the paranormal debunker played by Sigourney Weaver to the con behind whatever psychic phenomena she's been asked to investigate. Appropriately enough, the film's visual texture is full of visual "red lights" (figuratively, not literally) that its world isn't to be taken too seriously. First and foremost is the distancing effect familiar from The X-Files and countless other thrillers, when Canadian exteriors are used to substitute for a quintessentially American location (here, Columbus, Ohio) so that everything is "off" and nothing looks quite right. Cortés and his cinematographer, Xavi Giménez (The Machinist, Transsiberian), add to this effect with stylized photography, an almost gothic use of shadow and the frequent deployment of video screens and shots through cameras. It's as if Cortés is doing everything possible to undercut the realistic illusion of cinema and convert the screen into a giant stage on which a morality play about faith and illusion can play itself out. Does it work? Not entirely. The script for Red Lights isn't grand enough to justify so much artifice, despite the efforts of an A-list cast that includes, in addition to Weaver, Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy, Toby Jones, Joely Richardson and rising star Elizabeth Olsen. The cast keeps things interesting, but in the end Cortés hasn't achieved anything more than an overdressed genre tale that barely scratches the surface of the more profound questions of faith he clearly wanted to explore.
Cinematographer Xavi Giménez created a stylized, deliberate and composed look for Red Lights, making noteworthy use of shadow and darkness, especially for scenes involving Robert De Niro's Simon Silver. The critical element of Giménez's work is deep black, which is well represented on Millennium Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. Shot on film and finished on a digital intermediate, Red Lights' presentation on Blu-ray is clean, fine-grained and noiseless, with detail retained even in areas of dark shadow. Colors are generally muted, in keeping with the "haunted" atmosphere and the generally disconsolate mood of Matheson and Buckley. (Giménez also says in the extras that he was following the style of American political thrillers of the Seventies, which is an interesting choice.) Compression errors were not in evidence, nor was there any indication of detail filtering or artificial sharpening.
The sound mix in Red Lights' Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track isn't bombastic, but it will certainly let you know that you have a 5.1 speaker array. Director Cortés isn't one of those filmmakers who's concerned that off-camera noises will distract the viewer from the screen. He's perfectly happy to let sound designers place voices—real voices attached to human presence—in one or other surround, along with the bangs and crashes of a possible poltergeist and other potentially spectral events. The ambiance of locales like the university or the hospital where Matheson's son remains in a coma is effectively established, and the foreboding score by Victor Reyes (who also scored Buried) provides an unsettling undercurrent. Dialogue is always clear.
As a stylish genre exercise with a better-than-average cast, Red Lights is well worth watching, but Cortés makes it clear in the extras that he intended something more. He wanted the film to challenge the very concept of perception in the way that, e.g., The Usual Suspects challenges the concept of narrative reliability. On that score, the film falls short, never getting beyond the basic notion of magician's misdirection, which Murphy's Dr. Buckley explains to their student, Sally, in a coffee shop booth. As long as you have the right expectations, the Blu-ray is recommended.
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