Do you believe in magic? In 'Now You See Me', magic takes front and center in this heist movie. Previews showed the magicians up against the law, and in such a show down who would win? I won't spoil the movie with too many plot details as I recommend you checking this movie out for yourself. If you liked Ocean's 11, enjoy a few plot twists, and are willing to believe, this is a highly entertaining movie deserving of a sequel.
The opening sequence of the movie is pretty awesome…pick a card. Any card. Is this your card? Why- I do believe that it is! To make that happen for all audience members, well, that is a feat indeed. While I know magic doesn't exist, and that due to some conditioning we all collectively pick the same card, it is still a pretty cool trick. I find not getting too hung up in how the trick was done, but rather just letting the trick run its course makes the illusion even more enjoyable. So what if there is misdirection, let me follow, because I want to believe.
Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) doesn't agree with me on this, and believes the desire to know is greater than the desire to be fooled. I leave that up to you to decide, but the wiling suspension of disbelief, I find,
increases the fun factor in a show (magic, or otherwise) even though I know that this just a movie. I realize that this can't happen in reality, but I find just letting the movie take its course, and suspending that disbelief (however brief) does make the viewing experience that much more gratifying.
Not all movies are able to get the audience to buy into their world, and one can blame poor misdirection for that inability to get an audience to suspend their disbelief. If we, the audience, can do nothing but question the movie, then clearly it was not in the hands of a skilled entertainer. Luckily, 'Now You See Me' doesn't fall into that category. There was excellent acting by the cast , a good script, both of which combined to keep the plot moving. My only acting complaint was I did find it difficult to understand the French actress, Mélanie Laurent . This is an issue fixed by closed captioning, so no big loss but there were times I was afraid I would miss a critical plot point because I didn't quite catch all her lines. There were plot twists, and all the way to the end I was left guessing who was playing whom. In the end I guessed wrong. And being fooled, but enjoying it? Well, isn't that what magic is all about?
