By Simon Fitzpatrick
Does Louis “Clash Of The Titans” Leterrier’s latest effort pull a rabbit out of the hat? Or is the rabbit dead? Is there even a hat to pull something out of? It’s bursting with stars – Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Woody Harrelson for starters – and of course Las Vegas, putting in a convincing appearance as itself. If that makes it sound a bit like Ocean’s 11, that’s because it wants to be a bit like Ocean’s 11.
Sin City
The glamour of Vegas’s gambling-and-shows culture can’t quite mask a certain lack of solidity, though the first scene in Sin City itself may leave you with a yearning either to book a flight there or visit an online casino. Jesse “that guy who isn’t Michael Cera” Eisenberg and Dave “not James” Franco, join Isla Fisher and Harrelson as magicians-turned-bank robbers, the “Four Horsemen”.
The movie opens with the tricksters in different cities, hustling a variety of impressed marks using their various skills. They’re brought together after mysteriously being left a tarot card each; suddenly it’s a year later and we’re onstage with them in Vegas. It’s a promising start, as they tell a rapt audience that for their next trick, they’re going to rob a bank.
Misdirection
From here onwards, the plot twists and turns, mirroring a real life magic show with misdirections and reveals. Like half-decent magic, it looks highly impressive as long as you don’t think too hard about what’s actually going on. The gulf between critical and audience opinion of Now You See Me is revealing; it made over $40m in US theatres and $240m worldwide, and DVD figures were looking very good when it was released in September.
There are two main problems with Now You See Me. Firstly, there is precisely no character development whatsoever. We know everything we’re going to know about the thinly sketched caricatures minutes after we meet them. This would be forgiveable if the plot held together under even the most casual scrutiny.
Plot Trouble
We’re given a certain amount of information, then a lot of crazy stuff happens, then we have to wait until the climax to piece it all together. It’s unsatisfying and it feels like a cheat. And speaking of cheats, one scene with an exploding car is guaranteed to annoy; what happens is impossible, but the plot falls apart without it.
Having said all that, if you can suspend your irritation (not your disbelief – I’m going to assume you’ve done that already), Now You See Me is actually fun to watch. It’s fizzy and flashy like Vegas magic. Just remember the words of Eisenberg’s character:
“The more you look, the less you see!”