New Release Review: 'Now You See Me'

"Come in close, pay attention" - that's how films that traffic in illusion begin. They're up front with you, at least after a fashion. They tell you to expect twists and turns, so you do as you're told, and pay attention; but when the twists happen you miss how it was done precisely because you leaned in close, not noticing the trick that was going on around you. Or at least that's how it ought to be done, but when most final reveals come round, and the trick is explained, the answer to how they did it is almost always: 'we cheated'. A film that plays straight with you in the way it fools you is rare. Now You See Me is a far from perfect film, but one thing it does, is play straight with you. Shame about everything else.

Now You See Me is all about the show. The razzle-dazzle. A quartet of magicians - Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Not-James Franco (who also goes by Dave Franco) - are selected to pull off the greatest trick the world has ever seen, and in doing so, maybe even set a few things right. Strangely none of them are the protagonist. In fact the film doesn't seem to have one, although there are a half-dozen people vying to take up the mantle (particularly Mark Ruffalo's cliché spouting cop). There's also no antagonist ('villain' to the layman), although the film does think to throw one in at the half-way point, but then we never see them again. Nothing really happens in Now You See Me, it just seems to happen. No one changes/goes on a journey/learns anything about themselves, the world/city/local township isn't altered by anything anyone does. None of it matters. If you don't mind that, and you can let yourself be carried along by the spectacle, then it'll pass the time just fine.

Louis Letterier, he that directed it, reigns in his irritatingly frenetic editing style (if you need examples then put yourself through: Clash of the Titans and The Incredible Hulk) and allows the film to move along at a steady clip; for the most part keeping you from realising that you're going nowhere fast. The magicians at the centre of the film are passably kooky but you get the impression that the characterisation only went so far as giving each one a single adjective and then hoping they could form a fully realised human being from it. The rest of the cast don't fare much better, they're all asked to be little more than enigmatic. On the bright side that keeps you guessing who's pulling the puppet strings, downside: you won't care whether anyone gets shot, stabbed, crushed or put in jail. Does't work out very well on balance.

To steal a line from Usual Suspects: the greatest trick this film ever pulled, was convincing the world it exists.

Overall: 5.5/10


MINI-SPOILERS! 
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Although the plot machinations make sense, they only work because the characters are cyphers. They don't respond in any way that would be called logical. Or even human. They just do what the writers need them to do. When incited to rob a bank by a semi-mythical organisation none of the magicians question who's pulling the strings, they just go along with it. At the end of the film the magicians are among the most wanted in America - even if someone else has taken the largest part of the wrap, they're still going to jail as accessories to the crime, which they're bizzarely okay with (maybe 'cause they're cyphers?) - and they're inducted into an organisation which, best as I can tell, really doesn't exist; and they're probably its only members. They're also fine with that, because: cyphers.