At no time will you be anywhere other than exactly where I want you to be. So come close, get all over me because the closer you think you are, the less you’ll actually see.
– J. Daniel Atlas, Now You See Me
A very interesting line indeed; and it is probably what the creators of “Now You See Me” have had in their minds. Audience, come close, be mesmerized by the cinematography and you will not see that the story actually doesn’t make sense at all!
Now You See Me is a story of four people drawn together by their magic acts: a conceited street magician (Jesse Eisenberg); a former magician’s assistant turned escape artist (Isla Fisher); a once-famous mentalist (Woody Harrelson) who now gives readings and hypnotizes people for money; and a pickpocket who uses magic as deception (Dave Franco).
These four magicians coined as The Four Horsemen stage a series of magic acts all involving bank heists done offshore. This was not just magical to their audience, it is also financially beneficial since the money taken from banks goes to the audience either through magical bank transfer, or magical money rain.
How these acts were done is somewhat given light by another character, and ex-magician (Morgan Freeman) turned magic debunker. Apparently, these involved well-planned and well-organized acts performed months or even years before the actual show.
The heist naturally calls the attention of the authorities leading to a cat and mouse chase, with a bad-tempered FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) taking the lead, partnered with an Interpol detective (Melanie Luarent) on her first off-desk assignment.
The movie is indeed very entertaining.
If you sit back and relax as you watch this film, you will really be entertained by all the card tricks, mirror tricks, hypnosis, and even holograms—illusions and deceptions all done in a grand scale. Most were logic-defying, but entertaining nevertheless.
Unfortunately, if you try to lean closer and try to tie together the scenes as the story builds up, then you’re probably end up feeling that you were just deceived or cheated even. The story actually doesn’t have that much narrative sense.
But of course, if all you want is to be entertained (which is technically the reason why most of us watch movies anyway) then this film will be a very good choice. It is thrilling, exhilarating—magical in a tricky sense.
