Movie Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

2.5 stars out of 5

I saw this movie for three reasons:
1) It was Tuesday and I can see movies for free on Tuesdays.
2) The Office is terrible this year and maybe a lot of that has to do with the continued absence of Steve Carell. If this movie was funny enough, it would give credence to my theory. And perhaps this should be a separate point but I’ve committed to only three reasons so I’ll shoehorn it in here: I’ve been intrigued with Steve Carell movies ever since Dan in Real Life become my metric-standard “3 out of 5 stars” movie: Not bad, not good, but OK enough and perhaps perfect for a plane.
3) One of the writers was John Francis Daley, a.k.a. Sam on the wonderful series Freaks and Geeks.

I could’ve crossed off reason #3 if I’d known/remembered that Daley co-wrote Horrible Bosses, which was a piece of shit. And Daley didn’t write the part of Sam on F&G, he just played it. Get a grip on the difference between fiction and reality, Jack!

Still, this starts out with a, dare I say it, Freaks and Geeks-esque sweetness that the trailers for this movie didn’t point to. It’s 1982 and two pre-pubescent… well… geeks discover joy and true friendship via a magic kit. I totally bought it, that boost of self-esteem an outsider can get from whatever that passion might be—music, baseball cards, comic books, magic, etc. And when you have a partner in crime, you really feel you can conquer the world. So who needs those popular kids?

Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t stay in 1982. At first, that’s fine. We flash-forward to grown-up Burt and Anton finding success in the big-time world of magic. The mood is light and corny. There’s a quick glimpse of Johnny Carson (who was a teen magician himself) and I thought, hmm, maybe this movie knows what it is doing.

It does not. A big problem is Burt Wonderstone, the Carell character—how he’s written and how he’s performed. In a word: unlikeable. He’s become too accustomed to the fame, the women, the nice things. I kept thinking, we’re supposed to root for this guy (it’s his name in the title, after all), but how can I? And sure, I’ve seen plenty of movies, I know we will like him, but they were really pouring on the annoying-ness too thickly. (See James Franco in Oz for a good example of a shallow character who we know is really an okay guy from the get-go. It’s not that hard to pull off.)

There is enough decent stuff here to keep this from being a terrible movie. The traditional magic vs. modern David Blaine style is a compelling enough concept. I really liked the idea of a Vegas bar where magicians hang out. And the cast is pleasant enough, so there’s a bit of that hanging-out-with-old-pals feeling. Hey, James Gandolfini with a wig! Steve Buscemi (also in a wig) back to playing a lovable-loser sidekick—nice! Jay Mohr gets some laughs as a nervous, unsuccessful magician buddy. Olivia Wilde is apparently not Olivia Munn but is certainly attractive and does decent work here as the voice of reason. Jim Carrey, as the edgy up-and-coming stunt illusionist, is not as prominent in this movie as trailers would have you believe. Also, he is not particularly funny. So that’s a problem.

We do get Alan Arkin as magic-legend Rance Holloway, both in a 1982 instructional video and in a modern-day nursing home. Meeting his idol, Burt finally begins to regain his humanity, but movie-wise it’s too little, too late. That’s a shame, because there is sporadic good humor and genuine sweetness here, between Burt and Rance, and Burt and Anton. Might’ve been a real nice little movie. But they couldn’t quite get the rabbit out of the hat.