Now You See Me
A review
June 3, 2013
Viewed June 2, 2013
*** out of *****
“ Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion”
Koestler
The old
phrase goes simply “seeing is believing.”
Are we born skeptics or are we born believers? We go to the magic shows hoping to suspend
belief for just a moment in time.
Houdini escaped time and time again cheating death. We know that, but he was just a man. We know the elephant cannot really disappear,
don’t we? There is a trick, some
mechanism that is hidden from the audience that makes the magic. Yet we go to be fooled, to be amazed to see
with our own eyes what we want to see.
The new
film, Now You See Me covers very
little ground in the realm of unveiling any hidden magic about the world of
magic. Uneven, frenetic but watchable
and entertaining for most of its running time the film is likely to leave you
guessing to its final reveal(Hint, I did not guess it) Most of the charms of the film and there are
several occur during its middle section, but the film is maligned largely by
one too many subplots that the screenwriters leave juggling for the audience to
fill in the gaps.
The film
concerns the hunt for four elusive magicians who after pulling off an elaborate
trick in a Las Vegas act appear to steal a ton of money from a bank in Paris
and give the money to the assembled audience.
This runs them afoul of the FBI who are pursuit of the group as they
begin to plan and execute something bigger while being pursued.
The less
said about the rest of the labyrinth plot is wise, not that I could explain the
twists along the way, some of which under analysis make no sense. This is modern moviemaking after all, with
its unusual shot camera angles and its frenetic editing that suggests other
stronger films including a late hour car chase better suited to a Bond film
than this thriller.
This
hodgepodge of both a good and bad film is the work of screenwriters Ed Solomon
and Boaz Yakin who seek to confuse the viewer with its rapid fire dialogue
where all the characters speak as if they were Doctoral candidates in
one-liners from a university producing comedians. Its director, Louis Letterier who has good
work in his future as an action director is best when the film slows down and
works on character development, which is very little. I would have loved to see some back story
for the characters. The deepest
confusion a viewer may have is wondering who as the audience are we supposed to
be following. Are we meant to be
engaged by the leader of the greatly named, Four Horseman group of magicians led
by Jesse Eisenberg’s Daniel Atlas, who is still channeling his Mark Zuckerberg
in this performance, or are does our allegiance lie with the FBI agent, Dylan
Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo, who seems to be in a different movie at time
from everyone else, so serious does he play his role?
The rest
of the strong cast, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco as the fellow
magicians have nice moments. Harrelson
has played this role before in some form or fashion so it is no great stretch
for him. Morgan Freeman and Michael
Caine try to infuse their characters with a little life, but both are miscast
in their roles. However they are fantastic
all compared to poor Melanie Laurent, miscast as a French Interpol agent who
sole purpose in the script seems to be to give more exposition.
Despite my
reservations I found myself enjoying the film.
The magic sequences are a great
deal of fun to watch, and more scenes hit the mark than miss. In magic terms the whole film is more apt
to appeal to those who are apt not to question where the film is taking you,
just sit back and believe. If you peak
behind the façade backstage, you might spot the holes in the act.
Tommy
Key
Rated PG-13( language, action, sexual content)
No comments:
Post a Comment