Film Review: Now You See Me

Now You See Me. Rated M (mature themes, coarse language and sexual references). 116 minutes. Directed by Louis Leterrier. Screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt.

Verdict: This curiously unengaging heist tale fails to equal the sum of its parts.

Occasionally, a promotional trailer will flash across the screen that makes a film look intriguing. It won’t reveal much about the plot, but the flashy effects and instantly recognisable cast will ensure that the film’s impending release registers in our consciousness.

Such is the case with this Now You See Me – an over-produced story about four street magicians who are invited by a mysterious mentor to form a group known as The Four Horsemen, and use their combined creative powers to perform daring heists around the world.

Leterrier (Clash of the Titans) has assembled an outstanding cast, led by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) as one of the four magicians, and Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers, Shutter Island) as an FBI agent tasked with breaking the cycle of increasingly ambitious robberies the group manage to pull off – right under everyone’s noses.

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to watch Morgan Freeman, and his performance as Thaddeus Bradley – a man who has dedicated his life to revealing the secrets behind magic acts – is a gem. Equally, Michael Caine devours his brief but critical turn as the wealthy philanthropist, who suddenly finds himself to be nothing more than a powerless pawn in The Four Horsemen’s grand plan.

The central relationship between Ruffalo’s Dylan and Mélanie Laurent’s Interpol agent Alma fails to ring true, and if there is a flaw in the otherwise interesting screenplay, it’s that the human relationships are left wanting in the presence of the glossy magic acts. We are left with the sense of not being particularly engaged in the lives of the main characters, but rather impressed by all the technological wizardy that make the unbelievably fantastic heists possible. With a generous injection of more heart and soul, this is a film that might have been a good deal more involving than it ends up being.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.