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Topic: Now You See Me
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 08-10-2013 07:17 PM
2006/7 saw Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and Neil Burger's The Illusionist released in quick succession. The former was an excellent film of the calibre we've come to expect from Nolan while the latter was mediocre at best. Now You See Me sits somewhere between these two films quality-wise. It is not as smart as Nolan's film but it is more credible and delivers better performances than Burger's film.
Unlike The Illusionist, which contained tricks which were clearly the product of CGI, Now You See Me presents spectacular genuine illusions and, just to prove that they're not just "movie magic", it's detective story provides credible explanations as to how they're performed.
Now You See Me scribe, Ed Solomon, is a good(ish) writer - he wrote Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure but he also wrote Super Mario Bros. - but he's no Jonathan Nolan (Memento, The Prestige). His story of four illusionists using their skills to achieve social justice is a genuinely intriguing and entertaining one, and each trick is expertly realised. But by the time the film gets to it's somewhat lacklustre conclusion it's clear that it's not as clever as it would like to be; or maybe it's truer to say that it's not as clever as we'd like it to be. Indeed the resolution of the story is less of a twist than it is a McGuffin - a tacked-on ending to loosely justify the great stuff which preceded it.
Solomon's dialogue is smart and snappy and Jesse Eisenberg is just the man to deliver it. As an arrogant ladies man, however, Eisenberg's natural geek chic gets in the way and spoils his success in this department. But his overall performance is good as are those delivered by his stable-mates: Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Even Isla Fisher, who is not my favourite actress by a long shot, is very good in this.
Now You See Me is not a great film, but it could have been with a better realised conclusion. It is solidly entertaining, however, and it's 115 min runtime flies by very quickly with nary a dull moment throughout.
7.5 out of 10
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