NOW YOU SEE ME

   

Rated PG-13 for language, some action and sexual content

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Dave Franco, with Miachael Caine, and Morgan Freeman
Written By: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, and Edward Ricourt
Directed By: Louis Leterrier




HOW’D THEY DO THAT?
Review By Andrew Shuster

Bank robbing magicians! How has this not been done before? Now You See Me is what you’d get if you put Ocean’s Eleven and The Prestige in a blender. Along with the better of the “this” meets “that” type of films, a unique spin is put on the hybrid of genres making for something familiar yet original. 

The film is both clever and highly entertaining but takes missteps when certain plot points become too illogical. And it isn’t the ludicrous illusions used to pull off the bank heists. Sure they were illogical, but also ingenious and the ultimate reveal of how they were done even more so. The issues in logic lie more in character development and story structure.

The film opens with an introduction to the four leads and the brand of magic they specialize in. They are Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), a street magician who practices misdirection; Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), a hypnotist; Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), an escape artist; and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) an amateur sleight-of-hand artist who uses his skill for pickpocketing. Each are given a tarot card by a mysterious man in a hoodie inviting them to meet at a secret location in New York City. What happens at that meeting is unknown, but flash forward to a year later where the group is now headlining a show in Las Vegas, going by the name “The Four Horsemen”.

For their first trick, a “random” person is pulled from the audience and “transported” from Las Vegas to a bank in Paris. Somehow the money in the Paris vault is sent back to Vegas and showered over the audience. We see how this was done later. In the audience is Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a former magician who now makes millions off a TV show where he exposes the secrets of other magicians. Also present is Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), an insurance magnate who funds “The Four Horsemen”.

After their high profile robbery, the entertainers are brought in for questioning as to how the money went missing from the Paris vault. Of course the magicians were clearly on a stage in Las Vegas at the time so they couldn’t actually be responsible. Could they? The lead investigator on the case is Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), along with his partner Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent), an interpol detective transferred from France. The feds have no choice but to set the gang free as arresting them would be an admittance that the FBI believes in magic.

The Horsemen continue their stage-act, rewarding more audiences with the treasures of the rich. During a show in New Orleans they drain the bank account of a greedy businessman and divvy up his funds to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They’re the “Robin Hoods” of magic. Acts 2 & 3 of the film become a non-stop cat-and-mouse chase with Rhodes and the rest of the FBI on the group’s trail, but the tricksters are always one step ahead. After all, they do know magic.

Although enjoyable, the problem with acts 2 & 3 is the shift of focus from the magicians to the FBI, mainly Agent Rhodes. It’d be like if Ocean’s Eleven spent most of its screen-time focusing on Andy Garcia’s character. Ok, perhaps not that bad. More like if “The Fugitive” centered on Tommy Lee Jones. All the same, we paid to see Harrison Ford. The best aspect of the film is watching the Horsemen using their various talents to swindle money. Each member comes with their own specific skill-set but we don’t get to see them use their abilities nearly enough. The best use of this concept occurs midway through the film during a big action set-piece where Wilder gets into a brawl with Rhodes. Wilder employs his sleight-of-hand training in an exciting hand-to-hand combat where he uses playing cards as weapons. There are more sprinkles of this throughout, such as Merritt hypnotizing federal agents into believing their professional violinists, but it’s a shame The Horsemen's individual talents weren’t implemented even more.

The cast is very strong, chockfull of Academy Award winners and nominees. Daniel Atlas, a smug and cocky young magician, seems like a role written for a leading man less awkward and geeky than Jesse Eisenberg. Though he’s somewhat out of his acting wheelhouse, Eisenberg is still pretty solid, especially in a scene where he outsmarts Rhodes during a police interrogation. It brought back memories of his witty depositions in The Social Network. More apt for his role is Woody Harrelson as a once famous hypnotist who has fallen on hard times. He finds the perfect balance of sleazy and charming. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine serve as both the film’s antagonists and to add a bit of class to the proceedings. Both icons seem to be having fun slumming it for a summer movie.

There’s a final act twist that doesn’t feel believable and that’s saying something in a film where three people jump from a rooftop then appear to turn into piles of money. That trick is not explained. A twist ending is to be expected, after all this is a movie about trickery, but the surprise revelation is unearned. It makes sense that the filmmakers wanted to misdirect the audience until the very end, but if only the final discovery felt more cohesive to the story. 

Plot issues aside, Now You See Me is often clever, sometimes dumb, but always entertaining. A game cast has fun with the material their given and director Louis Letterrier keeps things moving at a fast pace. It’s not quite movie magic, and unlike the greatest of illusions it isn’t mind blowing, but it’s still a good time.