Are we at the point where Christopher Nolan, the “Dark Knight” maker, has been around long enough to inspire a new generation of moviemakers?
Well, sure. Nolan’s “Memento” came out in 2000, and he’s been prolific, so that’s plenty of time for others to absorb and imitate his fondness for puzzle structures and teasingly ambiguous plotlines. The inception is well under way, you might say.
That might explain “Red Lights,” a new film by the Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes, whose 2010 “Buried” was an ingenious little exercise: How do you make a movie about a man trapped in a coffin?
A promising feature. Alas, “Red Lights” suggests Cortes needed that restriction. This film begins with a very intriguing set of scenes and characters, and then allows them to grow murkier and less compelling as it goes along.
We meet a pair of professional debunkers, people who go around and prove that ghostly manifestations are bogus and that mind-readers are frauds.
Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) is a respected academic devoted to the rational explanation, above all else; Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) is her younger assistant, a physicist who likewise prefers reality-based systems of belief.
The movie’s big showdown comes with a blind, legendary clairvoyant, one of those guys who bend spoons with their mental powers and cause lights to flicker during their hokey demonstrations. His name is Simon Silver, and he’s played by Robert De Niro in dark glasses.
We concentrate on the scientist played by Cillian Murphy (currently on view in “The Dark Knight Rises”), who takes on a girlfriend (Elizabeth Olsen, from “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” and wasted here). He’s focused on unmasking Simon, but the movie wants to make us worry whether Simon’s powers are such that he could kill with a glance.
And so it goes. Cortes creates quite a bit of effective mystery, but little logical forward motion. Just to grab one example: It’s part of the tension that Dr. Matheson’s team at her university is ostracized and marginalized by a rival group that wants to prove the existence of psychic phenomena — but surely it would be the reverse? Even in a world that becomes less rational each day, I suspect the debunkers would be secure in their position.
In the end, we’re left with twists and surprises, but by that time I lost interest in how the puzzle fit together. There’s some talent here, but mostly “Red Lights” left me appreciating how cleverly Christopher Nolan sets his traps.
“Red Lights”
Professional debunkers of the paranormal, played by Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy, run afoul of a legendary clairvoyant (Robert De Niro). But, despite the intriguing opening sequences, this situation becomes less compelling as it goes along, as director Rodrigo Cortes fumbles the logical, real-world aspects of storytelling.
Rated: R for language.
Showing: Meridian.
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