Louis Leterrier's magic-themed thriller looks extremely glossy and parades its four, skilful, justice-seeking illusionists (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco) as if they were X-men. Yet the set-pieces don't involve hi-kicks, lazer beams or, indeed, any weapons. An early reference - to the insurance scams that took place after Hurricane Katrina - sets the tone. The film-makers, you see, are interested in a very specific kind of trickery. The sort that allows the rich – effortlessly - to bamboozle the poor.
The cast are intensely good. Eisenberg, as usual, plays a twitchy nerd (in this case a magician called J. Atlas), but each twitch carries its own, lovely backstory. He and Fisher – as the world-weary, munchkin-voiced escape artist who used to work for him - know just how to rub each other up the wrong way, with gags about (her) weight and (his) sexual prowess especially spry. Harrelson's hypnotist, meanwhile, is scrumptiously sordid. And cheek-boney newcomer, Franco (not surprisingly, the brother of James) more than holds his own.
Mark Ruffalo has a harder time as consistently befuddled cop, Dylan Rhodes, who gets saddled with a gorgeous French interpol agent (Melanie Laurent). And Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine - as pampered, if very different, businessmen, (each with their own glamorous assistant; a nice touch) - are hardly stretched. I should add that the story doesn't quite add up. Want to try these subversive shenanigans at home? Trust me, they won't work.
Still, implausible climax aside, this fast-paced, fizzy summer blockbuster leaves us with food for thought. Writers Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt suggest that average citizens are being conned by the smartest guys in the room. To gull or not to gull? Yakin and Ricourt no doubt asked themselves that very same question.
