Movies: Now You See Me

Score:  * out of ***** (F)

Long Story Short:  Beyond its intriguing premise, Now You See Me is an utter disaster and the worst film I have seen this year by far.  The cast includes an array of exciting personalities but the film completely wastes their talent (to be fair, some of their performances are similarly poor).  Those hoping for some cool magic tricks, heists and getaways will be very disappointed, as will those hoping for tonal consistency and plot coherence.  Avoid like the plague.


At last, I have experienced my first dud of the 2013 movie season.  Generally, I balance the premise and talent (actors/director) of a film with its score on Rotten Tomatoes; this leads me to skip some movies that look fun on paper but by all accounts seem to be dreadful, and on the other hand to try some films that otherwise I would not have.  Note:  the only trailers I watch now are those I see in the theater because A) they typically give too much away, yet also B) are usually misleading (in that really cool trailers can be made from really crappy movies and vice versa).  My "gamble" on The Great Gatsby a few weeks ago paid off; this one, not so much.  Now You See Me was directed by Louis Letterier (2008's Incredible Hulk... should have warned me!) and stars Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and others who surely wish not to be named.

Right off the bat, Now You See Me introduces the main four magicians:  the arrogant, sarcastic sleight-of-hand expert Daniel (Eisenberg); the expert show woman (and former assistant to Daniel) Henley (Fisher); the clever, funny, and ruthless mentalist Merritt (Harrelson); and the young, eager but unpolished Jack (Franco).  All of them receive an invitation from the same mysterious host, and they find something that shocks even their experienced eyes.

Fast forward one year, and the four magicians are performing together in Las Vegas.  They have some neat tricks, but save the best for last:  they send a banker from the audience to his bank in France and rob it right in front of him, then dump the cash on the audience.  The FBI puts agent Rhodes (Ruffalo) on the case, joined by Interpol agent Vargas.  The two hunt for "The Four Horsemen" magicians, mocked and helped along the way by former magician Thaddeus (Freeman).

The cast of Now You See Me was a main attraction for me; however, not only does the script fail them terribly, they aren't able to do much at all to salvage the mess.  The lead is agent Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo - a mistake right off the bat, as he is probably the most boring character in the film.  Rhodes is ridiculously stupid, and constantly shouts his cliched FBI dialogue; before long, you're rooting against this "good guy."  I'm not very familiar with Ruffalo, but he was either disinterested or not a great actor anyway.  Acting legends Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman team up again as supporting characters, but their presence merely adds to the colossal waste of potential in this film.  Neither one seems to phone it in (Freeman has a much bigger role), but the script was basically written with those actors in mind and doesn't give them anything new to do.

Now for the magicians themselves, whose screen time is bafflingly brief.  Eisenberg's Daniel is sort of the leader; the script clearly tries to make him a cynical yet likable (presumably, since the magicians are portrayed as modern Robin Hoods) lead, but I found nothing likable about him at all.  Jesse is great at being cynical, but the script goes overboard and there's nothing behind it.  Harrelson as Merritt is the lone semi-bright spot in the film.  He summons a healthy dose of his charisma and manages the devious yet gentle-hearted magician balancing act that Eisenberg fails.  I know Isla Fisher can act (from Wedding Crashers and Great Gatsby) but boy, does she try to convince us otherwise in this film.  Dave Franco gives good energy and enthusiasm but to me he is incredibly off-putting and unlikable.

If I knew what kind of movie Now You See Me was trying to be, I might be able to make suggestions of how it could have been improved.  I think the most accurate genre for this film, though, is "mess."  What seemed to be the main attraction of the film - based on commercials, at least - was the magic.  However, except for the first bank robbery (which only rose to "intriguing" level), the magic elements were utterly unmagical.  To make matters worse, the shows were filmed in such a way that it felt like watching a commercial (particularly with Fisher's narrative); maybe this was the point, but if so, it was a terrible idea.  But the magic shows are only changes of pace here; most of the action is spent on the incompetent agent Rhodes and his "helper" agent Vargas (played by Melanie Laurent, who looks bored as she inevitably becomes Rhodes' love interest).  Soon after the first magic show/bank robbery, it becomes impossible to follow what the hell the magicians are up to (let alone why) or what the authorities are doing/can do about it.  Oh, and as a final note, the film tries to incorporate a sense of humor, which falls flat save for perhaps a chuckle or two.

***

Although Now You See Me is a terrible movie, one that I nearly walked out of early, the one redeeming factor is that there's a certain sadistic pleasure in reviewing such films.  Now You See Me is similar to other films (i.e.: Adjustment Bureau) in that the original idea really had some promise.  Clearly, the director and/or writer and/or producer had many of the actors in mind, too (most of whom are usually quite fun to watch).  Then it started to fall apart, very rapidly.  The first huge problem is the script.  The writer(s) basically took elements of a bunch of modern genres (primarily heist) and smashed them together, completely marooning all the characters in no-man's land.  Next, either the director was understandably confused by the script, or just not good (also quite possible).  He changes tone so many times that, even if any of them weren't utterly unoriginal, they all cancel each other out; it basically cycles from silly to darkly serious to noble-minded (the Robin Hood aspect).  Well, I could probably go on, but I think that is sufficient skewering for this review.  In case it wasn't already obvious, avoid this film at all costs (including shouting it down as an option for a group watch).  If you want to see a movie about magicians, check out the excellent The Prestige (Christopher Nolan) instead.