THE CLOSER YOU LOOK, THE LESS YOU SEE : "NOW YOU SEE ME"

For my first trick tonight, I will make two hours of your life disappear J Wow, ok, that came out a tad bit darker than I intended it to. But you know what I mean. You sit down to watch a film, what with the dazzling special effects (yes, I know, I do moan about special effects a lot but you can’t beat them when they’re well used), glamorous actors and a whirlwind of a storyline, you’ll be walking out of the cinema scratching your head before you became fully conscious of ever sitting down.

It all starts, you see, with four illusionists (Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelsson and David Franco). They have banded together to form a troupe entitled “The Four Horsemen” – and for their tour around Las Vegas they use “magic” to “rob banks”. An amusing gimmick and nothing more, right? Well, possibly not. As the banks the four horsemen say they are robbing on stage in front of a live audience indeed start turning up empty the next morning, the police force (headed by Mark Ruffalo) is faced with the very same perplexing question we are all faced with at the end of magic shows (I know I’m supposed to call them mentalists or illusionists or whatever. For me, they will always ever be magicians. Sorry J ) : “How the heck did they do that?”  But with even one of the most famous “illusionist de-maskers” (Morgan Freeman) baffled by the turn of events and the possibility of an agenda that stretches way beyond just the cash… Is this simply a rather glamorous set of heists? Or is there actually something a lot bigger at stake?

Ok, quick question: Did you like the Ocean’s franchise? You did? Then jump right on the bandwagon my friends! This is most definitely one for you! And I mean, don’t get me wrong, I loved the Ocean’s films. But this is a tad bit better methinks. First of all, I like the fact that it doesn’t rely so much on star power. I mean don’t get me wrong there are one heck of a lot of stars in this one too. There are even a few I couldn’t get into the blurb like Michael Cane for example. But there are not 15 of them.  Which, in my view is a good thing. I mean 15 a-list celebrities are all very well and good – in fact in some cases but it always makes me a tad nervous about the rest of the film. You know, the directing, the storyline, the effects… I know it’s a tad unfair, but I always get the nagging question “what are they trying to hide?” – you know. If they’re throwing that much talent at it, my head reasons, there must be something going not quite right with it. Now this little number has a significant amount of star talent in the mix, you can ask what it’s trying to hide until you are blue in the face; I am pretty darn confident you won’t get it.

This is not simply because there is nothing that is obviously wrong with it; I have to say that this was one of the best heist  /stroylines I have seen in a very long time. I know that technology and development allows us to design visual effects gimmicks that are more intricate than ever before, but this was truly spectacular. And all the visuals – be it the effects all the stars – definitely do not retract from a complicated plotline you will literally “not see coming” until the very end. But don’t worry. There is a an actual “explanation”  bit very neatly inserted into the film so I can guarantee you won’t get completely lost.  This is actually my favourite kind of plot. I don’t like it when I can see films “coming” a mile away. And my “eyesight” is pretty darn good what with one thing and another  (mainly the sheer volume of films I have watched in my life).

If I were to say one negative thing about the film, it might be that it suffers from a slight lack of character development. I’m not going to go as far as saying they are “stock characters” they definitely are not, but… I mean we could, in an ideal world, get to know them a tad bit better. But then again, that is not what the movie is about. The movie is about the show – that’s why this is what the movie concentrates on. Which is fair enough, I think.

So next time you have a few hours to spare, feel free to spare it on this little number. You will not regret it – this much I promise you.