Movie Review: "Now You See Me"

Let me start this review by saying that I'm well aware that Now You See Me is about a group of magicians and that while many movies are grounded in a sense of reality, not all have to be. Just look at films like Iron Man- movies that use science faction and fantasy to tell their story by placing characters into interesting but unrealistic environments for the sake of entertainment. That's fine. What Now You See Me does, however, is not fine. Because even movies like Iron Man are grounded in some sense of reality. Yes, Ton Stark can use a robotic suit filled with weapons to fight off evildoers but it's not like he calls upon a dragon to rescue him when all hope seems lost. Movies can create whatever world they want, but they need to follow those rules if they want there story to have any credibility. Apparently, the writers of Now You See Me missed that lesson in screenwriting class.

About halfway through Now You See Me I decided to give up trying to guess what would happen. Not because the film was so intelligently structured that I had a hard time figuring out the twist, but because there was no point in trying to guess it anyway. No matter what I thought was going to happen, I could almost guarantee that the story was going to turn out some other way. That's because writers Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt don't seem to care that the film's many outlandish twists make absolutely no sense. In there world, every character seems to have impeccable knowledge of human behavior and virtually everybody is one step ahead of everybody else. A character will be intelligent when their knowledge is necessary to further the plot, and the same character will make a stupid mistake just a few minutes later. So, the "twists" in Now You See Me may be surprising, but only because they don't make sense in the fabric of the story. It's as if these three men sat down to write a screenplay and decided to abandon logic- instead, they'd just write what they thought sounded good.

And then there is the logic of these magicians and their abilities. The opening scene shows the way these magicians do their tricks and, a few moments later, Morgan Freeman discusses how he has the ability to debunk all of their illusions. Well, I sure as hell wish he did because the magic on display is bafflingly stupid. Again, I'm well aware this is a movie and not a documentary about the world of modern magic. But, to return to the Iron Man metaphor, it's not like he can shoot laser beams from his hands and fly just because. The film takes the time to explain how he built his weapons that allow him to do that. So, why can Isla Fischer magically transport herself across the room? How can Woody Harrelson's "mentalism" help him to know the intimate details of just about everybody he comes into contact with? The questions go on from there. Again, I'm not asking this film to be the height of realism, but I am asking for the film to at least make sense. When characters can do whatever the hell the writers want them to do, it makes the film considerably less enjoyable.

But the biggest crime of perpetuated by these screenwriters is  that they have wasted the talents of an all star cast. Now You See Me has one of the most impressive ensembles of the year, and not a single actor in the cast has a moment to shine. In fact, some of the actors are downright unimpressive. Jesse Eisenberg, in particular, came off as unbearable. Now, Eisenberg's performance as Mark Zuckerberg remains brilliant (and my favorite male performance of 2010). In Now You See Me,  Eisenberg repeats his Zuckerberg shtick but to the most annoying degree possible. His character is one of the most unlikable this year, and Eisenberg's performance lacks any sense of charisma. Perhaps the only actor with less screen presence in the film is Dave Franco. Then you have Mark Ruffalo, who essentially grumbles his way through the whole movie, while Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman turn in bland performances that we've seen them do many times before. The only actors that came out OK were Woody Harrelson, Isla Fischer, and Melanie Laurent and they are all serviceable at best.

Now You See Me was a surprise hit at the box office this summer, grossing more than the big star vehicles of two of Hollywood's most prolific leading men- Will Smith's After Earth and Johnny Depp's The Lone Ranger. And I suppose I understand why. Now You See Me is the sort of film that's easy for audiences to digest. It's perfect summer viewing- a mildly entertaining way to pass two hours in an air conditioned theater. But Now You See Me is not a good film. Sure, a few scenes were mildly interesting and the cast made a couple of the one liners work, but the film is so moronic and annoying that I couldn't truly have fun watching. I like being surprised by movie twists, but not when those surprises force the screenplay to sacrifice logic. And logic is something Now You See Me is lacking in.