What They Say:
Down-on-his-luck Las Vegas magician Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) reunites with his old partner Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) to take on hip illusionist Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) in this comedy from prolific television director Don Scardino. Partners for 30 years, illusionists Burt and Anton made the Las Vegas Strip a magical place to be. But lately Burt and Anton’s ticket sales have plummeted right alongside their once-strong partnership, allowing gritty street wizard Steve Gray (Carrey) an opportunity to steal their runic thunder. Now, in order for old dogs Burt and Anton to reclaim their rightful status as the best magicians on the Strip, they must learn some dazzling new tricks, and patch up their fractured friendship in the process
The Review:
Sometimes a movie comes along that you don’t hear too much about and you see the trailer for the first time as a surprise in the theater. And when you see it, you’re just trying to figure it out and take in who all is in it. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone left me blinking after I first saw that trailer in the theaters. A movie about magicians falling out of their game after being in a rut starring Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey and Olivia Wilde? Well, frankly, sign me up. This is the kind of cast that I’d love to just have them sitting around a table talking about anything for a couple of hours and just see what they come up with in talking about life in general. Directed by Don Scardino, who has spent a lot of time directing on TV after his own acting career and time on Broadway, what we get here is a pretty solid if a bit predictable $30 million film that left me smiling and laughing a good bit.
The premise is straightforward enough in that we’re introduced to ten year old boys Albert and Anthony. Albert’s bullied pretty easily as a kid and he makes his escape into the world of magic when he gets an As Seen On TV magicians kit for a pretty lonely birthday. That time with the kit has him making friends with Anthony, who is fascinated by it and ends up brainstorming all kinds of tricks with him. The two begin a thirty year friendship that has taken them to the big leagues over the years, including a now very polished and mature ten year old act at Bally’s in Las Vegas. They have their own theater in the hotel, packed seats every show and plenty of merchandise being sold. What they don’t have, particularly Burt as he’s now known, is a real love of the game of magic itself. Anton has it, but he’s unable to get past what Burt is like and the two are on the fast track to being outdated just because their friendship has turned to this point.
Enter the “extreme” magic of Steve Gray, played by Jim Carrey, as a sort of street magician hustler who does things that most wouldn’t actually qualify as magic but rather just stunts and challenges that do impress. There’s hints of magic in some of it, but it’s more like shock-magic than anything else, which Burt can’t wrap his head around when he sees it. Of course, everyone is crazy for Steve and that means everything falls apart quickly for Burt and Anton as their ticket sales fall and eventually the friendship fizzles out, leaving Burt to do the show on his own. Which he just can’t admit he can’t do, so it turns out even worse and he ends up on the streets, penniless and trying to figure out where it all went wrong. The question becomes, can he rediscover magic and find a path back to fame, fortune and, most importantly, friendship.
If you can’t see the answer to that, then you’ve not seen many movies. While the plot is predictable, it’s done with just enough fun, magic and character to make it work quite well. Steve Carell can do characters like Burt easily as he has a kind of disaffected nature about him, living in a bubble pretty much, that when he gets out into the real world there’s a kind of genuine nature in his disbelief about how everything actually works. His path of progress here is predictable as he can’t let go of who he was and then he finds a new way, through the help of a magician from his past but also from a producer forced to become an assistant for awhile named Jane. Jane, played by Olivia Wilde, has a good bit of fun with the part she has here as it does dabble a bit in the romantic interest area, but it’s tied to who she thought Burt was when she saw him perform ten year prior and then the man he becomes through the rediscovery of magic. There’s a charm between the two that when it does click later in the movie, it feels natural and made for some good scenes that simply weren’t overplayed.
I’ve long been a Steve Buscemi fan so I was glad to see him doing some comedic material here, though he largely plays it straight. When the big gig fails and he quits, he goes off to Asia where he gives magic kits to the poor, not realizing that what they really want is food and water. I sort of disliked how this was played as there are those that bring happiness to kids and adults in areas such as this and it does make a difference. His role as Anton is a bit more roundabout, but it works well in seeing his arc over the years from ten years old to present. The weak link in the movie isn’t due to the performance as Jim Carrey does quite well as Steve Gray, representing what’s wrong with “extreme magic” and that whole subculture of shock entertainment, but there’s just not enough meat to the part to make it work well. There’s no past, no reason for what he does, just that he wants it all and is voracious and oblivious to anyone and anything other than himself. It works almost as a stock villain of sorts, but Carrey is able to make him engaging to watch to see what crazy thing he’s going to try and pull off next, though he doesn’t go over the top with his performance of it. It’s pretty balanced, but I was left wanting to know more.
The film has a pretty by the numbers look to it as it works from the big Vegas stages to the retirement home where we see Alan Arkin as the retired magician offering advice. It doesn’t show us a dirty, seedy side to Vegas, but it has some normal aspects of it that you usually don’t, from people shopping to people generally just living there. Don Scardino offers some good direction here and the whole thing flows and keeps moving well, but it’s also not overly flashy. It’s almost a little subdued, which feels right for this trip into Vegas since we’re dealing with performers falling out of it and a pair of leads that have fallen out of the times due to the bubble that they’re in. James Gandolfini has some fun as the casino owner
In Summary:
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is the kind of film that, while predictable, makes you feel good. It has a good sense of fun about it as we see these entertainers trying to rediscover what really makes them tick at a time when magic is more about flash and entertainment than magic itself. There’s a neat scene towards the end as Burt and Steve end up competing at a kids birthday party and you can see how Steve is just out of touch with this audience while Burt has trouble with the older audience. There’s certainly a place for both, but it’s easy to side with Burt when he says what Steve does isn’t really magic. That predisposes us towards Burt in an obvious way, but that was a given in general since he’s the underdog here as his life falls out from under him. There’s a good cast here and they have fun with it throughout, playing it straight where needed but still with that kind of nod that there’s magic all around. Definitely enjoyable and worth seeing.
Grade: B
