Plot
J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Henley Reeves (Isla Fischer) are four talented magicians united by a mysterious benefactor. One year later they pose as the Four Horsemen sponsored by insurance magnate Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) and apparently rob a bank in Paris via a teleported audience assistant. Naturally, this draws the law authorities’ attention and FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) along with Interpol Agent Alma Drey (Melanie Laurent) seek assistance from ex-magician Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) to crack the case.
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| Standing in height order of how much screen time they have. |
Review
Magicians are cool. At least the good ones are. And if there’s one thing films can do better than anything else it’s make things look good. So, it seems, magicians and the cinema are a match made in heaven, but where are all the films? There’s The Prestige and…well…yeah exactly. Thankfully then, Louis Letterier – of previous Clash of the Titans fame, bewilderingly enough – has taken up the mantle with Now You See Me, a magician crime caper with plenty of promise and a $100 million domestic State-side gross behind it.
Magic is fun not because it’s ‘magical,’ but because it offers us something to suss out under the maxim of that immortal question: ‘how did they do that??’ For the most part, Now You See Me plays off this conceit brilliantly, ratcheting up the stakes with flashy chicanery and set pieces. Melanie Laurent’s smiling enigma Alma Drey says as much and there’s a commendable respect for magicians and their history throughout, even if some of the backstory sounds like a 14 year old’s fervent fiction.
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| 'Why? 'Coz I'm God, bitch.' |
The eclectic cast works well together, creating the sort of energy and dynamism expected in a bunch of showmen, their banter-y dialogue helping to ground a film that could quite easily have ballooned into ‘ridiculous’ territory. It’s just a shame that NYSM seems entirely intent on going there anyway; despite all of the Oceans 11-esque cool boasted in the first half, it starts to melt as soon as the film realises it needs to start tying up a few of its loose-ends rather than letting them fray any further.
An enterprise in which it almost exclusively fails.
With an excellent premise, flashy fun set-up and strong (central) cast, NYSM has more than enough going for it to warrant success; as indeed it has, bagging itself the coveted title ‘surprise hit of the summer.’ However, on the flipside, it does itself far too much damage with paper-thin characters and lazy, wearisome twists to prevent the sort of clean getaway the Four Horseman can apparently pluck from thin air. Because magic.
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| 'I can't eat dis.' |
The first act, up to the big bank bashing in Vegas, is paced well and zips merrily along with the energy of the enigmatic foursome. From there though, when the bank robbing takes central stage and Mr. Misery McIneptinthebut (Mark Ruffalo’s Dylan Rhodes) starts running around like a headless chicken, NYSM debases into a featureless, smug galumphing journey to a conclusion that’s as disappointing as it is bloated and pointless. It was always going to end with the big twist, it had to, but it finds itself in a Lost situation where the options were either inadequate in its obviousness, or perplexing in its meaninglessness. Remarkably, it managed to stumble into both.
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| Mark was sick of chasing magicians and just wanted to be a rock star instead. |
Maybe this isn’t giving NYSM enough credit however. It’s a film about magic after-all, slight-of-hand and illusion. So maybe the reason why the trailers looked so inviting and the concept seemed so intriguing was to run it’s audience through its own magic trick whereby it makes your money disappear. Letterier’s camera-work is flashy enough to fit the part, but it ultimately can’t hide the superficialities of a contrived revenge plot masquerading as something ‘bigger.’
But let’s at least thank the filmy gods for Woody Harrelson. Each of the central quartet are commendable in their own way – it’s remarkable how well Jesse Eisenberg can play a smug, arrogant turd-sandwich – but it’s Harrelson who steals all the acting plaudits. Just because Woody Harrelson is Woody Harrelson and therefore faultlessly wonderful.
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| She's an escapologist y'see. Or the victim of cult ritual. |
Verdict
A card trick: looks good, entertains in the moment but ultimately forgettable.
3/5
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