Now You See Me

Oh boy oh boy, I love it when a movie practices what it preaches!

I've been excited about Now You See Me ever since they released the promo clip of Jesse Eisenberg (or more specifically, his character, J. Daniels Atlas) performing the flashy, close-up card trick that ended up with your card lit up on the side of a building. It was smoothly done, and it was clever, and it made the promise of more to come. I have a weakness for magic tricks, and also for a good caper movie, so the fact that this movie was combining the two practically guaranteed my butt being parked in that cinema seat when the time came.

It did not disappoint.

The trailers all imply that The Four Horsemen are the main focus of the story, but this is not the case. For the majority of the movie, we follow Mark Ruffalo's Agent Dylan Rhodes as he desperately tries to catch them. This means that the audience is put in his position, watching the stunts from the outside, wondering how they did it, and wondering who can be trusted as it becomes clear that there is much more going on than a simple string of robberies.

If you're the kind of person who likes feeling smarter than the movie you're watching and enjoys picking it apart as it goes so you can guess the twist before it comes, then you and I are fundamentally different people and I don't understand why you hate that sense of wonder and surprise when a twist is genuinely unexpected. Also, this movie is not for you.
Personally, I found the final reveal at the end to be genuinely surprising and it made me grin so much that my cheeks hurt. There is a scene where Interpol Agent Alma Dray (played by the charming Mélanie Laurent) performs a card trick on Rhodes and asks him whether he felt exploited by the deception or whether it brought him a small hint of enjoyment, and this of course is the whole crux of the movie. The entire thing is permeated with set-ups and misdirection. If you think you know where a scene is going, it's because you're supposed to. Significant details are placed in view long enough for us to notice but not so much as to seem conspicuous. Clues are just obvious enough to slip under the radar, ready to pop back into your head after the event as you wonder what you missed, and it's clever without being obnoxiously clever. This movie is not afraid to make you think, and I love that. I really really love that.

Most importantly of all, this movie is fun. It's a really fun ride, thanks in no small part to it's pitch perfect casting. Jesse Eisenberg is surprisingly charismatic as the cocky J. Daniel Atlas. Woody Harrelson brings his trademark laid-back charm to mentalist Merritt McKinley, Isla Fisher is gorgeous and whip-smart as Henley Reeves, and Dave Franco gives Jack Wilder an almost terrier-like quality that serves as most of his characterisation, unfortunately. There are, of course, the behemothic talents of Micheal Caine as financial backer Arthur Tressler and Morgan Freeman as magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley, and rapper Common even makes a brief appearance as one of the Feds, but I think this movie undoubtedly belongs to Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent. I could wax poetic about the subtleties of each of their performances, but in the interests of keeping this short I'll just say that they're both wonderful. As they always are.

So yes, you should go see Now You See Me. It's a really good, enjoyable movie and we could do with more a lot more like it in cinemas.