Now You See Me

Four magicians – illusionist J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), his ex-girlfriend escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fischer), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), and sleight-of-hand expert Jack Wilder (Daniel Franco) are hired by an unknown party to pull off a complex scheme. Calling themselves the Four Horsemen, they create a highly popular act, which just so happens to coincide with a series of seemingly impossible high-profile robberies. This attracts the attention of magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), and Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). As the Horsemen’s act becomes more and more audacious and the investigators more and more determined to take them down, questions arise regarding what they are really after.

Caper films are nothing new, but Now You See Me comes across as a refreshingly original creation: an action-comedy-mystery….with MAGIC! Admittedly, a concoction that convoluted sounds like a recipe for failure. And yet because it balances those elements and changes gears quite fluidly, Now You See Me is more often than not a success.

Just as the Horsemen’s act is a team effort, so too are this film’s triumphs. Boaz Yakin’s script is fresh and funny. It drops hints and lays the seeds for numerous twists and turns without ever giving too much away. The lines are engagingly delivered by a seasoned cast. There are no slackers here, but Freeman’s jaded skeptic and Harrelson’s shameless horndog characters stand out. Louis Leterrier, primarily an action director, keeps the film moving. At no point does the film’s momentum grind to a halt.

Where Now You See Me suffers is in its conclusion. The contrived wrap-up resolves some lingering plot questions, but its reveal casts much of the film in a preposterous light. Too many by-chance happenings are passed off as the machinations of a master planner, and the blatant sequel hook is an insult to audiences.

To borrow from the magicians’ lingua franca, Now You See Me offers an intriguing setup and a fun performance but botches the prestige.

7.5/10