Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)

March 16, 2013 Reviews 4 Comments

Cast: Steve Carell, Luke Vanek, Steve Buscemi
Director: Don Scardino
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: For an additional perspective on The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, read Jason’s review. If you’ve already seen the film we’d love to hear your thoughts on it, or if you’re looking forward to seeing it this weekend, please tell us in the comments section below or in our new Next Projection Forums.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (Scardino, 2013) is a pretty good, coming-of-middle age story. The plot is tremendously simple: Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) are a Vegas magic act who have been best friends since grade school. Their performances have become tired and stale and so has their friendship. When a new ‘magician’, Steve Grey (Jim Carrey, who hasn’t been this funny in many years by mocking Chris Angel and David Blaine), arrives on the scene doing stunts that aren’t really magic they try and do a similar stunt that ends up dissolving their partnership and friendship. With the help of Jane (Olivia Wilde) and his childhood magician hero Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin, delivering his typical fantastic performance), Burt stops being a jerk and can be a magician with heart again, with his old pal Anton.

While it’s true that Carell is basically Michael from The Office but as a magician for most of the movie, he still manages to get laughs.

It seems as though I may have spoiled the plot, but honestly, anyone who has seen the trailer knows this is what the film is and how it will end. There is nothing new or unexpected that happens in the entire film, however it is still funny. That is largely due to the fantastic cast of the film. While it’s true that Carell is basically Michael from The Office but as a magician for most of the movie, he still manages to get laughs. I will admit that it’s the supporting roles by Buscemi, Carrey and Arkin that get the most out of their roles though.

Buscemi plays Anton as a very quiet, shy person…kind of like his Donnie from The Big Lebowski (Coen, 1998) but smarter. On stage, he’s very different: he’s personable and charismatic. He doesn’t indulge in the excesses that Burt does and the film goes out of its way to call attention to the way Buscemi looks as a joke. He shrugs as if he just kind of knows that he’s odd looking and fades into the background, letting Burt take most of the spotlight. Burt knows the spotlight is his and lives it up. He buys ‘the biggest bed in Vegas’ and announces it like it’s a trophy of his success. Anton is just kind of there and he knows it. He accepts this because it’s the way it has always been, despite his being more business savvy and more willing to try new magic tricks.

Jim Carrey as Steve Grey steals every scene he’s in, but for once it’s in a good way. Steve is a very muscular guy with tattoos all over his back and torso and long blond hair. He has his own cable show called Mind Rapist (a direct hit on Chris Angel’s MindFreak) on which he does stupid stunts and calls them magic when they really belong on Jackass. There is a scene later in the film, after Burt has rediscovered why he fell in love with magic (for the wonder!…and the women) and is playing the birthday party of his former boss’s kid, his former boss being casino magnate Doug Munny (James Gandolfini). There is a kind of magic-off between Burt and Steve in the vein of the wizard-off in The Sword in the Stone (Reitherman, 1963) without the flying. Burt just wants to entertain the kids, but Steve acts like he has something to prove to Burt, that he’s the better magician. The series of one-upsmanship (if it can be called that…it’s mostly Steve one-upping himself while Burt focuses on the kids) is very funny and stands out as one of the better scenes in the film.

If the gags had been as stale as the plot, the film would not have worked despite its stars, but screenwriters Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley came up with good bits to populate their standard plot and…

It’s very hard to explain how a film that covers no new ground can be so entertaining. Outside of the stars, the film has little going for it. To be honest, I was surprised that Will Farrell didn’t show up at some point as some lousy Vegas magician friend to Burt and Anton (like Jay Mohr does). I think that because the plot is so familiar, the scenes have the freedom to be as crazy as they want to be because the outcome is already known. If the gags had been as stale as the plot, the film would not have worked despite its stars, but screenwriters Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley came up with good bits to populate their standard plot and director Don Scardino gave his actors enough freedom with their characters that it brings the film up from okay to good.

In fact, Scardino seems to only be good with his actors. The direction of the film is nothing spectacular and it appears as though it was not meant to be. Scardino gives the impression that all the attention should be on the actors, so he does absolutely nothing to get in the way of them. For a film about the wonderment of magic, he does very little outside of showing people being awed by the feats performed. He does not attempt in any way to augment that with a directorial style that would cause wonder in the audience outside of his film. The only time he seems to take his head out of his Directing 101 book is when he shows Steve Grey getting uncomfortably close to the camera for his TV show, showing it from the camera’s POV and his mug right up on the lens. Those flourishes go toward showing how annoying Grey can be by having him be able to invade someone’s personal space through a television set, which is no small feat of annoyance. Perhaps this lack of ingenuity stems from the fact that this is his first feature after a long career of being a television director of mostly sit-coms. This background gives him knowledge enough of how to select the funniest performances of a scene, but nearly no experience in how to maneuver a camera for the cinema. This was ultimately a point and shoot affair for him, which is unfortunate because with a surer hand at the helm, this film could have been more than what it is. Not much more, but more.

In the end, the film is an actor’s showcase and it gives them free reign of the entire film. This works in the film’s favor because with a different cast, the film likely would not have worked at all. It’s entertaining without being overbearing. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone will not be remembered as one of the great screen comedies but for the 100 minutes it’s on, you’ll be able to laugh and sometimes that’s all a person needs.

70/100 ~ GOOD. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone will not be remembered as one of the great screen comedies but for the 100 minutes it’s on, you’ll be able to laugh and sometimes that’s all a person needs.

By Doug Heller

I believe film occupies a rare place as art, entertainment, historical records and pure joy. I love all films, good and bad, from every time period with an affinity to Classical Hollywood in general, but samurai, sci-fi and noir specifically. My BA is in Film Studies from Pitt and my MA is in Education. My goal is to be able to ignite a love of film in others that is similar to my own.

http://twitter.com/Bryan_C_Murray Bryan Murray

It looks like critics are on the fence with this one so I will see it soon to make up my own mind about it
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-D-Misch/28134555 Chris D. Misch

The film is pretty inviting with both Carey and Carell.
http://www.facebook.com/shari.begood Sharon Ballon

Hmmmm…. not sure about this one. I guess I’ll have to see it for myself since the reviews go either way.
http://twitter.com/DantheMan610 Dan O’Neill

It’s okay to watch, but not special in any way, shape, or form. Good review Doug.