Now You See Me: A Unique Thriller Worth Seeing

Director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Clash of the Titans) has produced one of the more enjoyable films of the early summer, using magic in this thriller to entice audiences.  While the film is far from perfect and has a few notable misses, it is fun, interesting and exhilarating from start to finish.

Premise: Four independent magicians unite to form The Four Horsemen, a new magic act that appears to have some seriously criminal implications. Result: A fun crime thriller with a unique magical spin that is sure to delight all the way through.

The fundamental premise of Now You See Me is that magic, if nothing else, is entertainment.  But hidden in this entertainment, this joy brought to observers, is a certain power, as magic is also, at its heart, the art of trickery and audience manipulation.

It is these two concepts that pervade this story, introducing four magicians, each at a different stage in their lives and careers: J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), an acclaimed magician on the world scene; Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), Atlas’ former love interest and assistant who terrifies audiences with death-defying stunts; Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), a former hypnotism juggernaut who has somewhat fallen from grace in recent years; and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), a novice who is still too unaccomplished to use his skill for more than petty theft.

But all four are brought together by some mysterious agent who introduces them to a plan that was “designed long ago.”  Quickly audiences are transported to a year later, where the motley crew has transformed into The Four Horsemen, an astounding magic act financed by insurance czar Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) and stalked by notorious magic-debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman). It is here that they begin their true magical journey, robbing a bank in Paris as one of their great illusions.

Instantly, the “crime” goes Federal, bringing in FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and InterPol agent Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) to figure out just how these Horsemen robbed the bank. And yet even as they interrogate the suspects and attempt the same with Bradley, there is never the sense that they or other high profile agents like Fuller (Michael Kelly) and Evans (Common) are ever any closer than many steps behind.

Instead, the four magicians simply become more powerful, leveling several more fascinating targets through some really intriguing acts.  This all amidst a hapless Rhodes and company who appear genuinely out matched throughout; but rather than detract from the film, it simply elevates the excitement of these characters and their amazing feats.

It should also be noted that audiences will also take extreme delight from Bradley’s explanations of the truth behind the magic, transforming the film from a series of unexplained events into a crime thriller with delightful twists and turns, some which importantly, even Bradley cannot explain. Audiences inadvertently play the contradictory roles of wide-awed children and incredulous adults as they are both thrilled by the magic but wish to uncover the mystery it in its own right.

Add in some entertaining car chases and an extremely memorable “magic” fight scene between Rhodes and Wilder and the film successfully lands the punches needed to keep audiences invested.

Of course, the film does have a few weaknesses.  First, Rhodes comes off more as a moronic cop than a genuine FBI agent – while this ultimately is explained, it could have been delivered with a bit less scenery chewing.

Additionally, the introduction of The Eye, doubts about Dray, and several other plot lines are only partially explained, leaving a certain sense of unfinished business.  This is particularly evident in the film’s resolution: while it is an extremely enjoyable twist overall, it is delivered poorly, lingering a bit too long in the realm of over-dramatization.

Fortunately, the performances in the film hit their respective marks.  Harrelson’s performance is most consistently the funniest and most memorable, but Fisher, Franco and Eisenberg all hold their own (this is a film where Eisenberg’s one character works again).

Ruffalo is fairy consistent throughout although there are a few too many valleys that shadow the performance. Laurent is good as always although her mysterious demeanor never really pays off in this film; she is almost too mysterious for the eventual outcome. Freeman and Caine are each quite effective, as would be expected, and their back-and-forth is delightful.

Ultimately, Now You See Me is a pleasure for fans of magic, crime thrillers, or exciting mysteries.  While the result somehow seems a bit rushed and possibly too light for the build-up, it still leaves a strong impression.

Rating: 7- A refreshing Champagne that a cute bartender comp’d you

Beginners: A New and Beautiful Way to Experience Sadness….

Director Mike Mills has created a film that rests not on intense, dramatic plot or intense catharsis, as many films about love and emotion are doomed to be, but instead on the abstract, the unexplained, and the emotion behind…the emotion. A quasi-autobiographical account of his own Father’s “coming out”, Beginners revels in a fresh take on a film, telling a story in every which way but up.

Premise: A young man wrestles with his own confusion about love while also dealing with his father’s cancer and sudden “coming out.” Result: A powerful, deep journey into our shared understanding of unhappiness, with a few laughs and a sprinkle of optimism.

Mills works with a talented cast to create a film that is difficult to appreciate in the wrong state of mind.  If audiences come anticipating a plot-driven film with a story marching towards an inevitable conclusion, they will likely be sorely disappointed. Mills instead crafts a story that depends far more on its lack of sequence and gutsy visuals than any familiar plot devices.  This is a movie about emotion, about pain, about the silent poison of unhappiness as it infects innocent beings making them unfeeling, numb, desperate and miserable without understanding the true nature of their entrapment. 

The central plot, if indeed there is one, rests on the fragile shoulders of Oliver (Ewan McGregor) who is the son of an elderly man, Hal (Christopher Plummer).  Hal is gay, but didn’t decide to pursue this life until his wife died and he was 75.  Not long after, he contracts cancer and slowly perishes.  This story would have been, in many ways, enough, had Beginners chosen to be about that.  It could have easily focused on Hal and Oliver’s relationship, which is complex; or on Hal and his choice to live his remaining days with a vibrancy he kept hidden for all year’s prior.

Alternatively, the plot is fragmented and out of chronology to disconnect audiences from their Pavlovian response to death and regret and things that are “oh, so sad…” Instead, Beginners is determined to make audiences feel, but in a way that they may never have done so before. Through stunning, emotive visuals and effectively crafted repetition, Mills is able to illicit audience sentiment not through traditional storylines, but through a sense of emotional disorientation.

This is the story of Oliver and his girlfriend Anna (Mélanie Laurent) who come to the realization that life is more complicated than it should be.  They meet in an amusing way, at party where, afflicted with laryngitis, Anna cannot even speak. But it all cosmically works somehow and they fall in love, or the best approximation of two people destined to be unhappy.  The rest of the film is an awkward dance through their time together, filled with heartfelt elegance and tragic missteps.

As the film progresses, we realize that we are not being told  a story, straightforward and innocuous – we are being violated by Mills, who has found a way to slowly confuse our emotional defenses and seep through our walls, and suddenly we understand.  This film is about an unspeakable melancholy, unspoken not because it is tragic or unimaginable, but unspoken because it afflicts us all in some way without our full comprehension.

There are many methods to this madness, many threads woven together, each more remarkably capable of seducing sadness from observers.  There is the most obvious tale, that of Oliver’s Father Hal, who spends his life living a lie and finally embracing his life only to die shortly after of cancer.  Or the pain felt by Hal’s lover Andy (Goran Visnjic), who cannot heal from the loss because Oliver can’t understand the need to acknowledge Andy’s emotion, or his unwillingness to. Or Hal’s Jack Russell that Oliver inherits, who cannot bear to be alone but who manages a soothing symbiotic relationship with his new owner through their shared depression.

 Or of Hal’s Father and Mother, Georgia (Mary Page Keller), who lived the lie together, who loved one another just enough to make the horror of the emptiness that suffocated them seem somehow less real.  The very few scenes of Oliver and his mother, carefully selected memories from a smoldering cache of tightly-held treasures deep within his mind, are subtle miseries let loose upon the audience; they are powerful not because of what was said, but what wasn’t, described simply as the traumas of pain unrealized.  This pain is felt mainly by children, children who do not yet understand the complex emotions realized by adults; this is the pain of small children who overhear parent’s shouts in the other room or who enter, unknowingly into their kitchen only to set eyes upon their mother, washing the dishes, crying softly, desperately, and they being somehow too young to understand why.   It is the pain of shattered innocence without the benefit of wisdom.

Unhappiness in this film is like radiation; it does not have a scent or a sensation.  Instead, it falls in waves over those adjacent, harming them on a granular, cellular level, creating damage that will not be felt fully for years to come.  Creating damages that allow a man be unable to separate from his father’s dog (perhaps a reminder of his Father? perhaps it is unconditional love?) and yet freely admits to sabotaging love before its inevitable failure.

This is certainly a strange film in many ways but is undoubtedly worth the emotional investment.  Not only are Mills’ direction, risk-taking and bizarre visual decisions interesting and fresh but his cast is somehow able to play just the right roles to make this film relatable.  McGregor and Laurent are very powerful in their roles and certainly carry the film.  Laurent is particularly able to command silence in an unusal way in American film, bringing foreign, exotic sense to her role.  Plummer is brilliant as a man who chooses not to emote, chooses instead to be happy with his short time rather than lament his choices.  Plummer masterfully delivers a performance where pain and wisdom is sprinkled with effective humor, making him both real and memorable.

Of course, the break out of this film must be Mary Page Keller, as Georgia.  She is both eccentric and caring in every moment, yet with every breath, with every sigh, with every smile, there is such a deep sense of loneliness, such a tragedy that we cannot help but be transfixed.  Keller is simply phenomenal in her limited time on screen, asking us not too ;look into her eyes, but behind them, at those things she is hiding from us, hiding from the world, that have nestled like the cancer that would take her husband years later, that eat at her, that devour her, that cannot be shared with her son.

While this film rests on its power to bring life to misery in unique ways, it also successfully delivers an optimism hidden deeply within the hum of anguish.  It is this juxtaposition of emotion, the beauty hidden in a terror we all know in one shape or another, that lifts this film to a height we hope will mark the beginning of many films to come.

 Rating: 8- An expensive red wine and juicy steak