Well That Blew My Mind

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2014)

I like my movies nice and tidy. You can make the beginning and middle as strange as you want, but the ending should be the bow on the package, sending the viewers out happily ever after.
That didn't happen in Now You See Me.
Worse yet, the more I try to understand it and end it happily, the less I understand.
With heist movies being one of my personal favorite genres, I sat down with high expectations for this movie. I got up feeling confused and disappointed. That movie didn't seem to end right. However, the more I thought about it, and took a look at the big picture, the more I realized the makers of the movie had me right where they wanted me.
Quick synopsis: Four street magicians find cards with the same address, date, and time on them. They meet up, find some mysterious room, then appear at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas a year later, now together and known as the Four Horsemen. They rob a bank in France from Las Vegas, sending the FBI and Interpol after them. After a couple more heists during shows and close calls, they escape and join the elite magician organization known only as The Eye.
Sounds fairly clear, right?
But then there's deeper elements that I'm not going to get into, because that would drag this review out. If you want to fully grasp this movie, you need to watch it for yourself. But now to the whole reason behind the movie.
As an amateur magician myself, when the actors discuss the concepts of misdirection in the movie, this was all stuff I've heard before. There is also one line repeated throughout the film: "The closer you look, the less you see." Also, when discussing misdirection, they repeatedly say that "the magician makes you think you've seen something, all the while setting you up for the biggest trick." That's exactly how the movie as a whole works. The ending is so confusing at first, but when you think about the movie, you realize that the whole movie is a magic trick.
Just as you start to think you understand the movie, there's a twist ending, then the movie's over.
Misdirection.
Then, as you think harder about the movie and try to resolve it, you can't.
"The closer you look, the less you see."
The masterful job that the film does of making a movie into a magic trick makes it definitely deserve an 8 out of 10.