Now You See Me (2013)

Movie magic tricks, by the literal meaning, can be the greatest magic tricks ever if actually pulled off. Movie magicians have a wider range of ways to trick an audience, but are at the disadvantage of most audience members walking in ready to solve the mystery. These days, so many people spend their time watching movies trying to figure out how they’ll end up that it has become extremely difficult to fool them. Movies like The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects are a thing of the past, partly because internet spoilers are more rampant thanks to social media, but also because we’re just plain harder to fool. Now You See Me isn’t really a great movie, but it is without question a great magic trick. You are bound to be fooled.

This is a movie that understands the essential rule of the successful magic trick: keep the audience distracted. It is a great trick not because of what it does, but how it does it. I can’t talk about the results of the movie at any length, suffice to say that it could have literally ended any way and made just as much sense. It’s like a game of Clue and who did it, how and why is interchangeable and insignificant. The set-up is simple. Four magicians played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco give an enormous magic show that supposedly involves the robbing of a French bank. FBI agents played by Mark Ruffalo and Melanie Laurent get involved and characters played by Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine come and go as needed by the script.

The more the movie progresses, the more we see of the usual Ruffalo, the less we see of the four charismatic stars and the more we realize we’re being played, yet can’t quite figure out how. What would usually be the answers to questions are too obvious and dismissible and the impossible becomes increasingly logical. The casting of the movie is one of the film’s greatest qualities and more than makes up for any flaws in the writing. People like Freeman and Caine are automatically suspect without doing anything and the less we see of the four stars, the more we assume they’re up to no good. The more confused Ruffalo gets, the more we realize how wrong all our early assumptions were and we have to start all over again. I suppose I shouldn’t have suspected anything but slick filmmaking from the team that created The Transporter, but Now You See Me is easy to get wrapped up in, even as goofy as it may seem in retrospect.

For as much fast-paced cinematic smoke and mirrors are utilized throughout this film, it is only natural that its final revelations may be a momentary let-down, but I am convinced that the success of the movie is in its showmanship. This is an impressive, entertaining picture that is sure to please. It’s not so masterful that it will hold up well with repeat viewings, not like, say, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. It’s a plenty fun movie the one time, though, and easily recommended.

8/10