A film review by Craig J. Koban June 11, 2013 |
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NOW YOU SEE ME
Woody Harrelson as Merritt Osbourne / Jesse Eisenberg as Michael Atlas / Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley / Mark Ruffalo as Dylan Hobbs / Isla Fisher as Henley / Mélanie Laurent as Alma Vargas / Michael Caine as Arthur Tressler / Dave Franco as Jack Directed by Louis Leterrier / Written by Edward Ricourt, Ed Solomon and Boaz Yakin |
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Far too much of NOW YOU SEE ME kind of plays like a far less compelling and more eye-rollingly preposterous modern day version of Christopher Nolan’s THE PRESTIGE. Both films tap
into the world of magicians and illusionists and both feature a very high
pedigree of acting talent (Michael Caine, oddly enough, appears in
both). Regrettably, NOW YOU
SEE ME is far too silly to leave a lasting impression: it’s a
silly film containing many serious actors that are desperately trying to
not come off as silly for nearly two hours.
THE PRESTIGE built to a conclusion that was both enrapturing and
suspenseful, whereas NOW YOU SEE just left me scratching my head and
asking far too many questions. Yeah…yeah…maybe
these two films are not really all that comparable, seeing as NOW YOU SEE
ME is more largely built on lame-brained plot developments and twists and
certainly does not go out of its way to be a sombre and thoughtful
meditation on the secret world of people in the magic craft.
It’s actually more of an elaborate heist film that just happens
to involve magicians, but even the best heist films require a large and
satisfying payoff. The
conclusion of NOW YOU SEE ME is largely of the uninspired and unremarkable
variety, and also shows a character shifting allegiances which really, for
the life of me, I am still trying to piece together in terms of it making
rational sense (beyond, of course, the script going out of its way to
tell us that it does makes sense). Ultimately,
what you have here is a glossy looking film with some novel ideas and a
very appealing cast that never really attains the heights it probably
should have. We are quickly
introduced to a series of magicians that will unavoidably come together to
form a team: There’s the more classically trained stage magician, J.
Daniel Atlas (the affectionately cocky Jesse Eisenberg); a mentalist that
specializes in hypnosis, Merritt McKinney (played with droll deadpan wit by
Woody Harrelson); a former assistant to Atlas turned escape artist, Henley
Reeves (Isla Fisher); and a street con man and two time hustler that’s
great with sleight of hand tricks, Jack Wilder (Dave Franco).
They are brought together by the wealthy Arthur Tressler (Michael
Caine, slumming it a bit with an underwritten role) that makes them the
new big “it” attraction on the Vegas strip called “The Four
Horseman.” Their very first
stunt in the film is pretty damn daring: they rob a bank in France…while
still remaining in the Vegas stage in front of thousands of eye witnesses.
This seems to catch the attention of an FBI agent Dylan
Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), who desperately wants to stop this team from
engaging in another series of audacious bank robberies (that, and he
really wants to know how they pulled the first one off).
Teamed up with him is a beautiful French Interpol agent, Alma Dray
(the luminous Melanie Laurent from INGLOURIOUS
BASTERDS and BEGINNERS) that
seems to have an interest in the Horsemen that may or may not be pure.
Added to the mix is a professional magician debunker Thaddeus
Bradley (Morgan Freeman), that makes millions from the sales of his DVD
docs that reveal all of the trade secrets of stage magicians, and he would
love nothing more than to reveal the Horseman’s hard-to-decipher methods
to the world. Again, the actors
here are definitely likeable, even through most of them seem to be
lethargically working their way to a mighty paycheck.
Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, for example, give this otherwise
outlandish film a necessary dosage of sophistication and gravitas, even
when their characters are not all that compellingly rendered (granted, the
pair manage to make even the most lame brained of dialogue exchanges feel
powerfully emoted). All of
the other actors, to be fair, seem to be competently going through the
motions here; Ruffalo always exudes an easy going charm, as he does here playing a frequently dim-witted man of the law.
Harrelson has some moments of snarky mischief.
Eisenberg has a manner of making most of his frequently dizzying
declarations ring with a rat-ta-tat fluidity and authenticity.
Fisher is really just pure window dressing here, and Franco seems
to have an annoying manner of acting with idiosyncratic smirks and
squints. Melanie Laurent is,
as always, a welcome sight in just about any film.
Maybe one of the
real problems with NOW YOU SEEM ME is that the Four Horsemen are not
really as likeable as the actors that portray them.
Most of them – beyond being ill-defined as well rounded personas
– are limitlessly arrogant wiseasses that believe that they are smarter
and better than just about everyone around them, despite the fact that
they are just props themselves being manipulate by a larger and more
omnipresent outside force. The
film also does not cast the FBI or police in any real positive light
either, as they seem to have to rely on a magic skeptic like Bradley to
help them when the collective wits and technology of the Federal government seems
incapable of cracking the Horsemen case.
Even some the most nifty of action sequences – like when Franco’s Wilder
disarms and attacks a hostile Rhodes with a deck of playing cards –
makes these lawmen seem more like bumbling and uncoordinated buffoons. Of course,
everything in the film builds to the obligatory big heist, which involves
the Horsemen using every conceivable trick up their collective sleeves and
arsenal – including the usage of holograms that seem not of this planet
and timing that appears to be categorically super human – to pull the
caper to end all capers off and finally establish themselves as pure folk
heroes to the common man. The
problem here, though, is that the story really starts to spiral out of
control to the point where twists and plot manipulations begin to have no motivation or reason to them.
It all culminates with one of those expository heavy scenes when
one person – ultimately revealed to be the grand puppet master - has to
explain to one incredulous soul everything that has transpired over the
course of the film. By this
point in the story I was just left with one nagging phrase going through my
noggin: “Say…what!?” Louis Leterrier, who has previously made films as far ranging as THE TRANSPORTER and THE INCREDIBLE HULK, directs NOW YOU SEE ME with flashy and obtrusive overkill that places great emphasis on glossy CGI augmentation, perpetually free roaming cinematography (he can’t seem to keep the camera still at times) and a disorienting sense of editorial clarity (a mid-movie foot chase sequence is a jumbled mess). I hate to bring up the comparison again, but Christopher Nolan had the intelligence and skills to craft a cerebral film about the psychology of his grand illusionists, something that Leterrier does not have the faculty for – or maybe even the slightest interest – in. Leterrier seems more compelled with smoke and mirror visual dynamism here than with truly investing in intriguing characters and a story that does not devolve into positively guffaw-inducing plot developments. There’s ample movie magic and make-believe on display in NOW YOU SEE ME, but it's all a rather transparent illusion that fails to hide the film’s real shortcomings. |
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