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Movie of the Week: Red Lights
We had to go all the way to Batley to see this as Cineworld in Wakefield wasn't showing it - apparently due to low viewing figures. I'm not sure how they expect to get viewing figures up if it's not available to watch. There were several advantages, however: 1) Showcase Batley is across the road from Ikea, so we combined the movie with shopping and lunch - always good - and 2) the Showcase Cinema in Batley is quite nicely designed, has some comfirtable waiting space and the seating layout (in our screen anyway) is good and seats are comfortable. Cineworld in Wakefield doesn't have seating if you have to wait and some of thir screens are suffeiung from tired seating and cramped layout. The Odeon multiscreen in Huddersfield has a horrible atmosphere and a weird layout, funnelling customers up a single escalator to the main floor, and it's seats are semi-reclined and play havoc with my back.
Anyhow, the cinema isn't the main point, I'm supposed to be talking about the movie, which was actually much better than I expected it to be given Wakefield's dire prognostications regarding poor audiences. The gist of the story is that Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver are part of an underfunded university department of psychology concentrating on debunking mediums, hauntings and psychics. They've had a reasonable amount of success, but Toby Jones, head of a rival department, is sucking up funding for his big experiment - to prove the existence of psi-powers.
And then into the middle of interdepartmental wrangling comes Simon Silver, blind psychic, healer, psychic surgeon and spoon-bender, (Robert De Nero). He makes a spectacular return to the stage after many years, having retired when one of his detractors died during a performance, leaving the believers half convinced that there was a psychic cause. Murphy is desperate to investigate Silver, but Weaver, who has crossed paths with him before, wants to leave him well alone.
To say anything more would be offering too many spoilers, but it is worth watching. There is a reveal at the end which I only got about 30 seconds in advance. Performances are good. The only thing I found irritating was the use of hand-held cameras or 'shakycam' for at least some of it. Presumably it was to disorient the audience more, but once spotted it was just annoying. That aside, though, this is well worth seeing if you can find a cinema that's still showing it.
Anyhow, the cinema isn't the main point, I'm supposed to be talking about the movie, which was actually much better than I expected it to be given Wakefield's dire prognostications regarding poor audiences. The gist of the story is that Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver are part of an underfunded university department of psychology concentrating on debunking mediums, hauntings and psychics. They've had a reasonable amount of success, but Toby Jones, head of a rival department, is sucking up funding for his big experiment - to prove the existence of psi-powers.
And then into the middle of interdepartmental wrangling comes Simon Silver, blind psychic, healer, psychic surgeon and spoon-bender, (Robert De Nero). He makes a spectacular return to the stage after many years, having retired when one of his detractors died during a performance, leaving the believers half convinced that there was a psychic cause. Murphy is desperate to investigate Silver, but Weaver, who has crossed paths with him before, wants to leave him well alone.
To say anything more would be offering too many spoilers, but it is worth watching. There is a reveal at the end which I only got about 30 seconds in advance. Performances are good. The only thing I found irritating was the use of hand-held cameras or 'shakycam' for at least some of it. Presumably it was to disorient the audience more, but once spotted it was just annoying. That aside, though, this is well worth seeing if you can find a cinema that's still showing it.
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In addition the lighting is usually dark, which doesn't help his already bad eyesight, and the pictures often change too quickly for him to see what they are. And he can't follow a normal conversation any more. It has to be slow, specific and even then - well I have some quite good conversations with myself, since his half can be about something completely different! So we don't watch drama and I read waaaaay too much fanfic! *g*
Despite this we communicate quite well as long as it's about the things that he understands, like weather and aeroplanes and cars. :)
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Actually he was watching such things last year. I think he'd just switch around until he came to something that wasn't 'talking heads' but he had no idea why he was watching them and I think it was more like modern art for him, bright and cheerfulBut at the time he was able to wander off if he wasn't enjoying it. now it doesn' occur to him to do that, so he sits there and suffers.
I don't think he actually 'follows' documentaries, but he enjoys familiar pictures of aeroplanes, and machinery is always interesting and pictures of plants and animals are always clear and thus easier to make out what they are. And he does have a chance of actually working out what's going on.
Adverts are now familiar so he'll say - oh, seen him before. But the idea of something being 'made up' just doesn't seem to make sense to him any more. And yesterday he was convinced he'd done all that stuff with Time Team and been there, presumably because we watch it so much he recognises the faces and so assumes he knows them. :)
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Hmmm... maybe when I get to the same stage as your dad I'll think I was on board Firefly! Something to look forward to.