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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 04/06/2013 : 16:05:57
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It's a soft-target satire which spins from very funny to wtf?!!! I didn't start out liking Steve Carrell, but have grown to understand his unique comic approach. That it doesn't always succeed here has less to do with him than the character he inhabits - an accomplished but morally deficient Vegas-style magician [the archetypes invoked throughout].
His act, developed since kidhood, depends on his less fizzy partner. In the hands of Steve Buscemi - we do care about this nearly nebish, for Steve is a very high-class actor.
Supports are well handled by Alan Arkin [the retired old pro who first inspired young Steve], Olivia White [whose ambition just might triumph over misogyny], James Gandolfini [perhaps a tad too self-aware], and most of all by Jim Carrey. I'm a BIG Carrey fan, so if you ain't - well, fuck off. And I deliberately use that phrase because it is precisely the response JC's character would employ - he plays one of those magicians whose act totally depends on the physical abuse of his body - a kind of Goth, hippy David Blaine, but never so soft-spoken. His character's truly revolting, but Jim just lights up the screen.
The screenplay had every opening for an original illusion versus reality kind of thing. But any profundities have disappeared with nary so much as an abracadabra - leaving instead, no, not rabbits and doves, but enough saccharine to kill a coffee stone dead.
As I say, there are scenes - even groups of scenes - that will engage you. But, tell you the honest - I'd trade 'em all in for an hour in the company of Penn and Teller.
Now, that's magic!
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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
