Look Closely - Now You See Me Review [Spoiler Alert]

"First rule of magic: always be the smartest person in the room."

When people think of magic, people think of deception and lies. When people talk about deception, they will associate it with crime. That's the theme that the movie Now You See Me brings.

The movie starts with standard introductions of the four leads of the story and their background. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) performed card magic trick on the street that especially attracted women. Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), a mentalist, succeeded to dig out a random man's information that he was cheating on his wife. His wife, who happened to be around, was surely furious to know the fact. The husband paid McKinney to hypnotize his wife into forgetting about the scandal. Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) possessed an incredible hand skill, allowing him to steal the wallet of someone who blew his magic trick in just a split second. Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) was a Houdini-like daring escapologist who was performing a rather dangerous piranha stunt. She tricked the audience into believing that her stunt failed and she was visibly eaten by the piranha in a glass box full of water (added with dramatic bloody effect), only to obviously escape in the end.

Each four talented magicians received a tarot card by a mysterious person and was invited to a run-down apartment, where they found futuristic, high-tech blue print embedded with a strange logo. A year later, the magicians became the world's famous magician group known as The Four Horsemen. They were performing in Las Vegas, attended by their benefactor Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) and an ex-magician whose job is now to reveal magician's tricks, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman). The Four Horsemen ended the show with a mindblowing magic trick no one has ever seen: they were going to rob a bank. They invited a randomly selected French audience to the stage to be a volunteer, and they were going to teleport him into his bank back in France. Moments later, the money from the vault in the bank seemed to be sucked into the vacuum. All the money fell from the ceiling of the stadium, showering the audience in joy with countless cash.

The Four Horsemen was to conduct other robberies taking cover of magic tricks in the latter performances in an almost high-tech fashion in a way that was impossible. Following this, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and a French interpol Alma Vargas (Melanie Laurent) teamed up to go after the notorious magician group. Would they ever outsmart the cunning magicians? What did Bradley and Tressler have to do with them? What was the motive behind all the robberies?

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Since Now You See Me brings the theme of magic tricks, it's inevitable to say that it keeps on making you think for two hours straight. This movie draws you into the intricate world full of magic, where tricks and technique really contribute to the way things are conducted. It is the kind of movie that will exhaust you mentally for keeping you to constantly think how one aspect is related to another. Unlike movies in general, where there are always a few to many scenes where the characters are involved in an overly long, boring conversation, Now You See Me was conveyed in a fast-paced plot. I believe the director, Louis Leterrier, is aware that since the movie's theme is about magic, he intends not to keep the audience even more bored and exhausted through long, boring conversations. One scene never lasts than two minutes long. The longest conversation scene that I noticed in the movie was the one between Tressler and Bradley. Other than that, the movie consists of many active and successfully conveys fast-paced plot through many not-so-long scenes. So for those who are worried that this movie has many boring conversations that make you doze off, you shouldn't be.

I can't quite figure out about some symbolism mentioned in the movie. The prominent symbolism seen in the movie is obviously the tarot cards each magician receives in the beginning of the movie. The tarot cards weren't clearly seen. Only one is visibly captured on the screen, and that was death. I believe it was Dave Franco's character who got it, and that was because in the middle of the movie, he had to feign death to trick Rhodes and Vargas. Now You See Me also tries to make some biblical and mythological references: The Four Horsemen were described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, having mentioned that their riders Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. The movie also mentioned of a secret magician society calledThe Eye which refers to an Egyptian myth where a group of people stole from the rich and gave them to the poor, like Robin Hood. I can't quite make sure how the biblical reference could relate to the plot, but the mythological one does strongly associate to the essence of the story. The Four Horsemen robbed a French bank and later emptied Tressler's bank account by depositing his money to every audience. All of these crimes were performed in form of a seemingly innocent magic show, like it was just intended for fun.

*Click below for spoilers*

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The movie got a bit surrealistic towards the end. This is actually an interesting scene and a “big question mark” kind of scene at the same time. The magicians were led to a carousel in Central Park spinning in high speed after escaping from the police. They jumped into the carousel before the scene cut. This particular scene left me curious even after the movie. I read on any source on the internet to find out what really happened to the magicians during the carousel scene. Really, when the scene cut after the magicians jumped into the spinning carousel, it left me an impression that they disappeared forever or maybe even died. Most of the sources said that them jumping into the carousel represent that they magicians were recruited to The Eye.

So after I figured that out, I expanded my way of thinking: maybe the the spinning carousel was the door The Eye's headquarter. It might work kind of like Harry Potter's Chamber of Secrets, where the characters had to activate some a concealed gate (the restroom's sinks) to reveal the so-called chamber. Going back to Now You See Me, the carousel might lead the magicians to The Eye's headquarter. Or the scene might not be as literal as it seems as well, seeing that the carousel has horses → The Four Horsemen. The Eye was earlier described in the movie as a society where only the best magicians could be recruited. The four magicians jumping into the carousel might serve as a metaphor that they might have succeeded in completing all the hardest tasks magicians could ever tackle, thus granting them an access to the society.

The movie does have a twist, but it was more of a “Oh I see” kind of twist, not a really surprising one. Like any other audience, I would be questioning who was the hooded figure who watched over each magician's activity at the beginning of the movie. He/she was obviously the person responsible of giving the tarot card, invited the magician into the run down apartment, and brought the magicians into stardom a year later. Since there weren't so many characters involved in the movie, my assumptions would be that the hooded figure was either Dylan Rhodes, Alma Vargas, Arthur Tressler, or Thaddeus Bradley. We were at first led to believe it was Tressler, as it was clearly mentioned by Henley Reeves that he was their benefactor, but later on, Tressler became the victim of the magicians' tricks. If it wasn't Tressler, then it should be the suspicious Bradley, as he always appeared skeptical and more antagonistic towards the magicians. Maybe Bradley did all of these just to seek for attention he once had (as he was an ex-magician himself). Note that The Four Horsemen members were even unaware of who that particular figure was as it was mentioned that they even wondered who made them what they were that day. But towards the end, even Bradley ultimately became the victim of the tricks well.

Then it was down to Alma Vargas. I almost believe that it was her, especially she seemed to do extensive research of magic while doing the case, even sleeping with the book of magic in her hand. She seemed to possess extensive knowledge of magic, knowing about the magicians who became the victims of Bradley''s humiliation (Bradley's job was to earn money by blowing the magicians' tricks). However, in the last two minutes of the movie, Ta-da...it was Dylan Rhodes. I was like, why and how. It was explained in the end that Dylan was the son of the magician whose magic tricks discovered by Bradley. Humiliated, Dylan's father performed a dangerous stunt which leads to his death. Tressler was the owner of the insurance company that denied to insure Dylan's father's death, leaving him and the rest of his family penniless. So Dylan apparently worked his butt off to avenge his father's death by making a different persona (as the mysterious hooded figure) who recruited the four magicians, turned them into The Four Horsemen and made them perform such tricks that would lead Tressler and Bradley to their downfall.

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This was where I realized that the movie itself also tried to trick us into believing that the four initial leads (The Four Horsemen members: Daniel, Merritt, Jack, and Henley) were the main leads of the story, that they were the heart of the story. Apparently, they were just puppets used to convey a revenge plot. These four members had no direct relation with the actual scheme behind the bank robberies. They were just actors hired to perform those s tasks. The actual plot itself revolves around Dylan Rhodes, Arthur Tressler, and Thaddeus Bradley.

However, at the same time, this is where the movie flaws lie. It's almost impossible that someone would think of avenging their relative's death in an intricate fashion that even takes a year to do so. Maybe it's just the Dylan's character that's overly genius that he almost acts a manipulator himself to the movie audience. We were led to believe that he's the good guy, only to be discovered that he was the mastermind of the entire case. Unlike other typical avenging characters in other movies that act more antagonistically, Dylan was seen as clean-cut person. He was an FBI agent for God's sake. Maybe he didn't want to use his own hands to avenge his father's death. He wouldn't just grab a knife, put on a mask a la Texas Chainsaw Massacre or other serial killers to kill Tressler and Bradley. Dylan instead painstakingly arranged everything in a year, as if he'd know what sort of events would take place, hire a group of magicians that would prove Tressler and Bradley wrong and have the magicians humiliate them as they had humiliated Dylan's father.

The plot holes are: then what's so significant about The Eye and the plot? How were all the advanced magic tricks made? It leaves us with many holes and questions left unexplained. If the four magicians have been working under the guidance of the mysterious hooded figure aka Dylan Rhodes? How did Dylan Rhodes guide them performance by performance without revealing himself until the end of the movie? How did Dylan - as the magicians' boss - communicate with them without revealing himself? How did Dylan become a part of The Eye when he was not a magician himself? Or was he also actually a magician but he doesn't want to mess up with his own hands and he'd rather hire magicians to the job for him? How were all the high tech effects made in each performance? Who made them? Then who's the bad guy? Actually, we could say they were Tressler and Bradley. However, they were just doing their job. This essentially makes Dylan as well as The Four Horsemen members more as anti-heroes rather than heroes.

*Spoiler ends*

 

On the other hand, I would love to see the chemistry happening between the members of The Four Horsemen. Actually, I was surprised myself that the four initial lead magicians had a considerably smaller portion of the movie, compared to Dylan Rhodes, Alma Vargas, Arthur Tressler and Thaddeus Bradley. The magicians only mainly appeared in stage performances, engaged in an interaction with the audience rather than between themselves. There were only a few scenes involving the magicians' interacting with each other. Three of the most prominent ones are when the magicians met in the apartment, when they tested McKinney's mind reading ability on the plane, and when they planned on escaping inside the run down apartment. Therefore, this made us hard to determine how the relationship and chemistry were like among themselves. I would like to see if there were any internal conflicts within The Four Horsemen.

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The weak script also contributes to lack of characterization and background. We could tell that McKinney was the goofy one in the group, having come up with some jokes in some parts of the movie, Atlas was a control freak and this was discovered through McKinney's mindreading ability, Jack – who was probably the youngest – was a laid back, playful guy, Henley was a daring one. Atlas and Henley were also revealed that they used to be a couple before the events in the movie take place. Henley apparently broke up from Atlas and established her own career after she was tired of being his assistant. These were all only mentioned briefly in the beginning of the movie and actually, it would be interesting to explore the magicians' view. We only see them as performers and how other people (the police and the audience) receive their presence. The magicians were well-received by the audience but they're viewed as criminals by the police. I wonder if the magicians ever felt guilty for doing any of those acts or whether they had internal conflict. But on the other hand, I realized that maybe the director was interested only in exploring the magicians as merely performers, whose personal life is nobody's business. Thus their personal life remain partially undisclosed.

Overall, it was an exciting movie. It has the witty essence of Ocean's Eleven and the cold magic vibe of The Prestige. This particular caper movie has witty, cunning, smart feeling to it instead of cold, thriller that would bring everyone chill.