Fantasy collides head-on with history, leaving few survivors.
Trying to make both at once, director Charles Sturridge has tied himself into knots that Harry Houdini couldn't escape. You're the critic in our At the Movies forum. As in real life, Doyle champions the truth of the girls' magical images in a popular book. With Doyle and Houdini on hand, the stage is set for a colorful conflict between believers and skeptics, between the concepts of mystical vision and mass delusion. Contreras' script develops this debate by touching on Theosophism, maternal grief, war mourning, industrialization and even electrification as explanations of the public's credulity and need for transcendental relief.