Now You See Me (2013) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

The best thing about uncovering mysteries is when you discover the how and why behind it all.


PLOT


Now You See Me follows four magicians who form the act, The Four Horsemen, when sharing a tarot card and are given holographic instructions from an unknown benefactor. The team includes: hypnotist/mentalist Merritt McKinney, sleight of hand/pickpocket Jack Wilder, illusionist/street magician J Daniel Atlas and his ex girlfriend, escapist Henley Reeves. A year passes after they are formed and their shows would be funded by insurance magnate Arthur Tressler. When closing a show in Las Vegas, their last show ends with them virtually robbing a bank from Paris by having an audience member be transported, resulting in euros being showered on the crowd. With a Paris bank vault being proven empty, Interpol detective Alma Dray is paired with FBI agent Dylan Rhodes to figure out how this became possible. They do interrogate the Horsemen, but they’re let go due to lack of evidence. This leads to the detectives reaching out to former magician turned debunker Theodore Bradley who proves there was a mock vault under the stage, meaning the money was stolen in advance, as was choosing the participant Étienne (Jose Garcia) who they hypnotized to forge his signature and use his credit card. With his help, they follow the Horsmen to another show in New Orleans and they witness them transfer millions from Tressler’s accounts to audience members who were denied insurance claims following Hurricane Katrina. As Dylan fails to capture the four, Tressler demands Bradley to expose them for robbing him. With the investigation continuing, Alma suspects they're initiating to become 'The Eye', a secret group of magicians who steal from the powerful and instill hope for the vulnerable. Around the time Dylan realizes his phone got swapped with a bugged clone, the FBI track it down to an apartment in New York. Jack gets chased in his efforts to destroy the evidence, only to seemingly die in a car accident. Dylan then finds clues that their next crime will involve them stealing from an Elkhorn Security safe and when first finding it to be missing, he intercepts it from another hypnotized agent only for it to be a decoy of balloon animals. Converging the Horsemen's final show to take place at 5 Pointz, they give a farewell before disappearing into a shower of counterfeit money. The real money would then be found in Bradley's car, interpreting him to be an accomplice. However once incarcerated, Dylan reveals he was the benefactor the whole time and Jack faked his death to break into the real safe. After Dylan officially welcomes all four horsemen to The Eye, he tells Alma the next day of his motives: His father was once a popular magician, Lionel Shrike, who was outed by Bradley 30 years prior. When he tried to save his career with an escape trick via Elkhorn safe, he fatally drowned and was denied life insurance by both Tressler and Credit Republican, meaning all these orchestrated tricks have been part of avenging his dad. Understanding how he feels, the film ends with Alma agreeing to keep his secret.


THOUGHTS


Their have been quite the handful of heist movies, but there was never really anything like this. In what was sure a fun summer from 2013, Director Louis Leterrier kept the ball rolling here in more ways than one. The idea of vigilante magicians committing big time heists with various tricks to give back is too damn cool of a plot to ignore and it works so well. The score's quite enticing by Brian Tyler and the visual effects work to make all the tricks believable like the Horsemen dissolving into money, Henley summoning a herd of piranhas and a fake transport or seeing a card get lit up in a tower is too damn cool to not be impressed. All the editing is mostly quite exceptional because they make sure there are no real clues until it's all over. Having said that, the main reason people like myself have grown to enjoy this movie over the years is because it's highly creative in saying how powerful of a tool both perception and illusion can be once you know the difference because both of which can help you share what needs to be told whether it is pointing out someone's true intentions in this case. The Horsemen are so easy to connect to because to connect to because while their acts helped them get by, they genuinely grew to think of others before themselves which is the whole point of The Eye. Woody Harrelson easily makes me smile as Merritt because he's witty enough to a point to enjoy his work and due to his brother ripping him off long ago, being part of the cause helped him regain his mojo in a bigger way. Dave Franco was enjoyable as Jack because as a rookie, he gets learn more as he is going along that makes him a legend of his own since I too fell for his fake death. Jesse Eisenberg makes a great leader as Atlas because due to his focus on wanting to be in control so much, it gives him a clear conscience on how he chooses to succeed which pays off when leading the others. While this mindset didn't work out in a personal relationship with Henley, their respect for one another sure didn't change since Isla Fisher portrayed her to be just as resilient and independent as the others around her. Again, they get along so well for sharing that common interest but they don't get this opportunity without the one who opened the door for them. Mark Ruffalo fooled me big time as Dylan because while coming off as a cunning agent, it was his disguise to be a meticulous mastermind his dad would be proud to have seen. He had a big personal motive going into his grand scheme and it worked the way he wanted to because he didn't want to hurt anyone physically, but more mentally because he wanted those who wronged him to know what it was like to lose everything. He rightfully had it out for Tressler since Michael Caine played it straight in portraying him as so self absorbed that he looked down on everyone that it bit him bad. For Bradley, it was much different because in this case, Morgan Freeman showed him to be one who was too cynical towards one way of life that he didn't understand how his opinions affected people's way of life until karma came his way too. Looking back, I genuinely thought it would be Alma that would be the mastermind due to how she was genuinely showing more interest of the Eye. Having said that, Melanie Laurent made her interesting for expressing high open mindedness, hence suggesting Dylan to take a leap of faith and kiss him as the Horsemen escaped again before finding out who he really was. With such sympathy for him, it was a given she would keep his secret safe because otherwise her newfound interest would've been all for nothing. Although this led to him stop keeping in touch, I'm sure she won't forget the joy that can come from what people can perceive as magic. I can give this movie many kinds of credit for being enjoyable, but there are still some things that didn't make much sense upon rewatching. For instance, continuity errors kick in fast when the Horsemen meet because in one take, Henley is right next to Daniel only to be behind him by the next shot. Storywise, it doesn't sound legit Daniel would be allowed to play with cards when being interrogated. If he's a suspect, he shouldn't be allowed such a privilege. Plus, it's kind of a big surprise everyone would be comfortable in announcing how much money they have because even if everyone got to go home with money they never thought they'd have, anyone can still rob one another and I hope that didn't happen to anyone that attended the New Orleans show. Moving on, it does feel a little dumb that the FBI didn't bother looking over the interrogation tapes until after New Orleans. I can buy Dylan would do that on purpose, but Alma so should not have made that mistake. Ignore these things, then you'll still have a hella good time with all the mystery that unfolds that comes from Now You See Me. If you enjoy seeing mysteries get unfolded, this movie is meant for you.