This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Is the long arm of the Law quicker than the Eye of Horus?
Plot Overview
“Now You See Me”
opens with teletype pages scrolling by until the camera drops down
to four hands typing them, then two expertly
shuffling a deck of cards. This is going to be a wire
game—underworld lingo for a BIG con—with four
players executing it: street-magician–card-sharp
J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg),
mentalist–hypnotist–small-time–con-man Merritt
McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Houdini-like escape-artist Henley Reeves
(Isla Fisher), and pickpocket–card-thrower–safe-cracker
Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). Each receives an invitation to
participate by an unknown handler written on a tarot card
(“I got Lover”) inscribed with a stylized Eye. They
hadn't met one another before, except Henley had once been Danny's
assistant (“We were never a couple.”) A year hence they are
billing themselves as The Four Horsemen and opening a magic act
at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. For their final trick: “Tonight we are
going to rob a bank.”
Audience member Ètienne
Forcier (José Garcia) volunteers his bank Crédit Républicain de
Paris for the robbery. He dons a teleportation helmet,
is beamed across several time zones, drops a calling card in the
bank's vault, and watches 3.2 million euros in paper money
disappear up the ceiling's air vent. That money (supposedly)
travels through a duct connecting Paris's ninth
arrondissement to Sin City, Nevada where it comes out the
Grand's ceiling showering the consumer audience with cash, much to
their delight. The authorities are not so happy.
FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol liaison Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) question Ètienne whom they find to have been hypnotized. He believes he really went to Paris. He's of no use. Then they question the magicians as a prelude to arresting them.
I'm reminded
of an incident in Mark Twain's Huckleberry
Finn. Adolescent Huck and runaway slave Jim
are floating down the Mississippi River on a raft when they take on
two guests, con artists, who decide to dupe a town into paying to
see them perform Shakespeare for a three-night run. The
first night half the town attends who quickly realize they've been
had. Rather than complain, they make out that it was a great
performance so the rest of the town will attend the next
day. They'd rather that than be a laughing stock. On the third
night they all lie in wait with rotten vegetables to throw,
prepared to tar and feather the impostors … who being sneaky
skip the performance and beat a hasty retreat.
The FBI's problem here is since they can't
explain how the money traveled instantly around the globe, they'd
be the laughing stock of law enforcement if they put it down
to magic. They wait to see what happens at The Horsemen's
second performance, in New Orleans. There The Four Horsemen
electronically drain the bank account of their multi-millionaire
banker–sponsor Arthur Tressler (Michael
Caine) and electronically distribute it among the bank
accounts of the audience members. Both bank and banker
having been hit, the humiliation is now complete, and while
the FBI
is leery of prosecuting magic robberies of hard
currency, they have no such qualms with electronic theft.
They move in to make the collar (“No one leaves the theater,
no one!”) The crowd under the control of the magicians
interferes with the feebies, and The Four Horsemen escape.
Come the third performance in NYC (“Hello, New York”) and law enforcement is waiting for them, but the horsemen aren't about to give that performance (“Good-night, New York”) but beat a hasty retreat … knocking off a safe as a target of opportunity. Due to electronic surveillance the FBI had stumbled onto their safe heist plan and a second FBI team that was guarding the safe is after them, along with the first team, and Interpol, and civilian magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) acting as an advisor. Twain's Shakespearean actors were a little worse for the wear trying to make it back to the raft, and it doesn't look like all the magicians will survive the car chase.
Ideology
The original small
potatoes acts are wonders in their own right, along the lines of:
(Prov. 30:18-19) “There be
three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know
not:
The way of an eagle in
the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the
midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.”
“The way of an eagle in the air” corresponds to card-thrower Jack. He had to practice to get the ballistics right to do damage.
“The way of a serpent upon a rock” corresponds to street-magician Danny making a slithering escape from a docked ferry boat after his trick was exposed.
“The way of a ship in the midst of the sea” corresponds to escape-artist Henley's underwater liberation from bondage, if she can even do it.
Lastly there's,
“the way of a man with a maid.” That goes to mentalist
Merritt. Mentalism isn't an exact science but incorporates,
“tricks mostly, some science, targeted guessing might be a
most apt description, along with some intuition and the occasional
voices in my head.” Upon being questioned by agents Dylan and
Alma, he asks them out of the blue, “Is this your first
date?” He notices “palpable tension in this room. She
has a lot of big secrets.”
There's an enigmatic hooded figure
observing these magicians, who tapped them for some kind of
initiation rite. The puppet-master is likely to be revealed at the
end according to the title, Now You See Me. The
unveiling is likely to reshuffle working relations on various levels. A
quintessential example can be taken from writer Karl Eska:
The bride was the only one of the women to be heavily veiled. Otherwise the veil was rarely seen these days, in villages far away from the town. But every Turkmen girl still went to her wedding heavily veiled, and when, as often happened, the bridegroom had not seen his future bride before, he both married her and got his first glimpse of her, on the same day. No man was allowed to raise the bride's veil, but any woman could.Ana's curiosity got the better of her. Under the veil she found a very young, plain face that smiled at her awkwardly. The bride might have been fifteen. She was smiling, not because it was her wedding day, but because it was a day on which she did not have to work, and because no one cuffed her and pushed her around. She knew nothing of love and nothing of the joys awaiting her. One thing she did know for certain: that the life which was to begin that day would be hard, that it would contain plenty of work, and perhaps plenty of blows too. Up to now it had been her mother who had ruled over her. Now, it would be her husband's parents, perhaps even a couple of sisters, who would push all their heavy work onto her—and her husband himself. (9–10)
In our movie we had cooperating
magicians, their sponsor, a debunker, and police agencies of
conflicting jurisdictions. The revelation is likely to instigate
big changes in their working relations. Or maybe not.
[T]here were certain customs which you couldn't change overnight. It was impossible to alter these customs. They were assumed as rights. On such matters the people stuck together and protected one another. Hadn't he carried out his orders and thundered against the buying of wives time and time again? And what had he got out of it? Sullen faces, extorted promises, which no one ever had any intention of keeping. They didn't even believe in his own indignation. And hadn't he himself bought his first wife according to the old custom? And he had no wish to tell Ana how old she had been. (Eska 65-6)Robin Hood remains a hero. Long live the status quo.
Production Values
“” (2013) was directed by Louis Leterrier. Ed Solomon is credited with its screenplay, and that and story too by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, and Woody Harrelson. The actors weren't given much time to develop their characters, but they were all so likeable it didn't seem to matter. In fact the casting, I think, is the strong point of the movie. The dialogue was just the right mix of in-the-know magic talk and street-smart posing.
MPA rated it PG–13 for language, some action and sexual content. The editing flipped perspectives rather quickly, keeping us on our toes. The music was really good, lots of presence, and the car chase scene was exceptional. “Now You See Me” was shot with an anamorphic lens giving subtlety to the magic tricks. Steadicams were used to spice it up as we are swept round and round.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
“Now You See Me” does a real good job of leading the audience along trying to figure it out as it unfolds. Mainly, it seems a new experience rather than a rehash of old formulas. At 115 min. it's just long enough to make it satisfying. If it lacks anything it's depth of character development, which may be critical to some, but I could live with it. I think it's a rewarding film.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture was cited from the King James Version, Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Eska, Karl. The Five Seasons. Copyright © 1954 by The Viking Press, Inc. New York: The Viking Press, 1954. Print.
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