Now You See Me

In looking over the reviews, I'm not the first person to point out that a line used in the movie can also be used to describe the movie: "the closer you look, the less you see". This movie is best viewed with no analysis at all. No active thoughts. No expectations of character arcs or thematic elements and narrative depth. Just go in and watch a movie that blends a heist movie with magic. If you do that, you'll have fun watching these four use sleight of hand, mentalism, and standard stage magic to pull off a series of heists as the FBI, Interpol. and a former magician who likes to bust magicians are hot on their trail. The camera work is snappy and captures the grandiose illusions being crafted (even if we know actual stage magic isn't being performed). Jesse Eisenberg is enjoyably smug, Woody Harrelson is always fun, Isla Fisher is a bright bubbly light, it's fun to see Morgan Freeman play against his kindly grandfather/God type, and the rest of the cast is enjoyable too. There's a constant energy to the movie, always moving, always propelling forward; you never feel it slow down or lose momentum. All the while, there's an engaging mystery of why this group of magicians has been brought together to pull off these heists, and how they're doing it. I had fun with this. I really did. I really want you to keep that in mind for the next part, where I pick at this movie. It's going to seem more negative than positive, and it isn't. The cast is fun, but not a single role has anything to them more than what you see, and some have less than that. Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, and Michael Caine are all playing themselves. Isla Fisher's role is "woman"; she brings nothing to the role other than being cute. I haven't mentioned the fourth member of the crew, because that's how little the character matters to the movie or how much the actor brings to the role. The IDEA of magicians pulling off heists is fun, but when you stop for a moment and think about it, it's barely different from Ocean's Eleven, and since this is on film and the "magicians" are "actors", we know that there is no trick being performed. It's hard to be impressed when we know that, unlike an actual magician, there's no skill here, just special effects. The movie casually shifts from being their story to Ruffalo's FBI agent's story somewhere in the middle, and his character (and the completely non-essential love interest Interpol agent he's paired with) just isn't deep enough to carry it. So there's all that. The good and the bad. You don't look hard, you won't notice the flaws. A solid 8/10. But I know your eyes are wandering to the star rating of 7/10 and wondering about the discrepancy. The ending. The ending did that. The ending has a twist that is so unbelievably, profoundly, thoroughly, overwhelmingly stupid, it knocked off a half star on its own, and I may be being generous. It probably should've knocked off a full star. It's a Keyser Soze kind of ending, where it suddenly recontextualizes the whole movie. Except here, it is so nonsensical, it opens up plot holes all over the place. You will spend several minutes in your chair going "... but wait, if ...". And because it makes you pull at threads to make the ending make sense, the errors you could convince yourself to overlook in the name of fun start to stand out more. It is an ending that does measurable harm to the movie before it. So, if you decide to watch this, keep in mind you're going to have to perform some magic of your own to enjoy it. Otherwise, all you'll see are the secrets that spoil the tricks, and they're not nearly as fascinating.