Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Traditional forms of magic are becoming a dying trend save for those glossy Las Vegas casinos. It's not often these days you'll find a magician performing card tricks or that trick with the rings. Now, increasingly daring and spectacular illusionists such as Dynamo and Derren Brown own the stage, taking over from the likes of Paul Daniels and David Copperfield to enchant audiences with their logic-defying stunts and tricks.

Perhaps that's what makes The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, the latest comedy from Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey, such a surprisingly endearing and heartfelt movie. Sure, there's the usual mixture of improvised comedy and gross-out gags, but at the heart of it all this is a nice, albeit a little unfocused, love letter to a form of entertainment that's slowly and sadly expiring.

Carrell plays Burt, a millionaire Vegas magician whose friendship with his long time stage partner Anton (Steve Buscemi) has soured. As ticket sales begin to flop for Burt and his career becomes questionable, a new cult following has popped up for outrageous street magician Steve Gray (Carrey), whose TV show "Steve Gray: Brain Rapist" has catapulted him into super-stardom. 

When his assistant Jane (Olivia Wilde) and Anton abandon him, Burt's act dies along with their friendship. To save his career, the incredible Burt Wonderstone has to find a way to get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.

The story is likely to perform a vanishing act on your mind once you leave the cinema, but the narrative doesn't really try to be any more than it is. The rivalry between Carrell and Carrey is played out brilliantly, with Carrey giving a hilarious performance that entertains as much as his character shocks. Steve Gray is clearly a representation of the likes of Dynamo - with a little more crazy, of course (at one point his trick involves "harmlessly" drilling through his own skull) and, for all his best efforts, Burt's once mesmerising act is just old news.

The only problem is that Burt's emotional growth seems to be pulled in all directions throughout the film - had it focused more on his rivalry with Steve Gray or his friendship with Buscemi's Anton, his stunted relationship with Olivia Wilde's blatant love interest Jane or even his deep affection for Alan Arkin's retired legendary magician Rance Holloway, we may have been more engrossed. 

It's a shame, really, because although The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is hilarious in parts with its witty commentary on celebrity desperation to remain famous, it barely skims the surface of its potential. Some of the plot points are standard issue Carrell material, while Olivia Wilde and Steve Buscemi are wasted in their supporting roles (although Wilde does get a brilliant monologue about the importance of magic to kids).

Still, there are some brilliant moments that ring true to our world, such as Burt's last ditch attempt to regain popularity by spending an entire week in a suspended glass box with Anton (remind you of a particular David?). Then there's Buscemi's vanity project in an African jungle attempting to bring joy to starving kids by introducing them to magic, when all they want to do is eat the rabbit which pops out of the hat.

The tone does bounce around too much, though, as one moment we see an increasingly sentimental Burt reconnect with his childhood hero - then immediately throwing in another gross gag from Steve Gray. There's no particular focus on one feeling at a time, so it's tough to know when to fix on what. 

Yet what's more appealing about this exuberant comedy is its message: just because something's old, doesn't mean it hasn't got one last trick up its sleeve.

Summary

As ever with outings from the likes of Carrell, the funniest parts of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone are in the first half an hour. Yet, as the movie drifts into more sentimental and thoughtful territory, this nice comedy delivers a powerful finale that should entertain even on repeat viewings. It's hardly The Prestige with fake tan, but The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is a gently satisfying feature with some fantastic performances from its central cast. 

8/10 - Great

See it if you liked: Anchorman (2004), The Prestige (2006) Magicians (2007)