Death Defying Acts

1926. Famed escape artist Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce) has spent much of his energy of late trying to expose charlatans claiming to have paranormal/psychic powers. He offers a $10,000 reward to anyone who can recite his mother's dying words to him from several years earlier, words he wrote down and sealed into an envelope. Edinburgh-based con artist Mary McGarvie (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who largely works with her teenage daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan), senses an opportunity for that $10,000 when she learns that Houdini will visit Edinburgh during his latest tour. One of Mary and Benji's scams is to perpetrate having psychic powers in a stage show using previously-gleaned information, often through nefarious means. Mary believes that she and Benji can work such a scam on Houdini, which requires them getting close to him to find out as much about him as they can. Upon Houdini's arrival in Edinburgh, they find that an unforeseen obstacle is getting through Houdini's manager, Sugarman (Timothy Spall).