Now You See Me Review

Louis Leterrier’s latest, Now You See Me, is a contemporary look at illusion and revenge, where magic is used as a diversion to outwit corporate greed and give back to the American people. Our Robin Hood quartet are a bunch of street artists, using their personal brands of trickery to etch a reputation in the industry. Jesse Eisenberg is of Domino ilk, using lavish card stunts to bed his fans, Woody Harrelson is a hypnotherapy wiz, Isla Fisher an escape artist and Dave Franco a lightning quick pick pocket.

Had these unruly tricksters staid at the foreground of the film, there may have been hope. Within moments of Mark Ruffalo’s doughy Detective Dylan Rhodes making an entrance however they become just one of a fistful of narratives in a mighty confusing game of cat and mouse.

Leterrier has managed to make the impossible possible by rendering Ruffalo thoroughly unlikable for the majority of the story. Running after his targets with top button undone and fist constantly shaking in the air, Rhodes is a caricature grabbing at nothing and irrationally taking up most of the screen time.

As the new ensemble, branded The Four Horsemen, continue to outwit the FBI, and their gaping audiences, the motives of their actions become lost in muddled motives and a chaos of sub narratives. Dave Franco brings the most effective scene of the film but is otherwise rendered utterly useless. Character arcs are stunted, with some abandoned mid story and our key illusionist diminished into a series of displeasing traits and one-liners.

Admittedly the ending is not easily predicted but this twist of events is not weighty enough to carry a gaudy chase film with more questions left unanswered and then answered, and a Nolan worthy cast wasted on poor writing. Now You See Me uses its own smoke and mirrors to distract its audience from untied ends and thinly strung characters, with the big reveal doing little to eradicate the sour taste leading up to it.