The Incredible Burt Wonderstone: The confusion of a dream-reality

Magic has a sense of appeal that can amaze even the staunchest critics. Many people claim that magic employs deceit and should not be praised but, all the same, a magician does use unique skills that have been practised and acquired over years to dazzle his audience. Most often we can’t help but be in awe of the magic tricks that we see. While The Incredible Burt Wonderstone has magic as a key component in the film, it relies on magic solely as a medium to establish a passion and friendship which is what the film is truly about.

Burt Wonderstone was a lanky child with nearly no friends. He was constantly bullied by kids who had a physical superiority over him and, to add to this, he received no particular support from his parents who seem to be absent from the key moments in his life. To his joy however, his mother leaves him a magic set as a birthday gift which has been compiled by his hero, magician Rance Holloway. Burt begins to practise the tricks in the set and manages to make a friend in school when he demonstrates a trick to Anton Marvelton. Burt and Anton grow up to become famous magicians in Las Vegas but their friendship eventually gets strained because of their disagreements over performing the same mundane magic tricks for 15 years. In this spell, street magician Steve Gray tries to dethrone them as the best magician in all the land with his new shock-value tricks that manage to captivate the younger audiences leaving Burt and Anton struggling to keep themselves relevant.

While magic appears to be the focus in the plot, it is actually just a vessel for director Don Scardino to bring out the underlying points of friendship and passion that are subtly highlighted in the film. While the protagonist has lost his passion for his art, which is established in the backstory, it is also evident that his friendship with his best friend has taken a hit because of his expanding ego on account of his success. As the film progresses, he is revealed to have a sensitive side as he is stripped away from certain privileges and left vulnerable. Steve Carell plays the role of the protagonist to no great amazement; he is amiable as the fool in the spotlight who suffers personally for the benefit of others. Jim Carrey does a credible job as antagonist Steve Gray, particularly playing the comedic moments to his advantage.

Overall, the film seemed to lack focus as it shifted from being a story about a successful man with a wounded ego to transform into a mix between a family-oriented friendship story and a raunchy romantic affair. There seemed to be more of a focus on debunking the art of street magic by highlighting one world famous magician in particular. The film critiqued his style of performing painful aberrations and portraying them as a demonstration of superhuman capabilities. The use of comedy in the film is sparse and very untimely. The film does have a pleasant soundtrack which can be heard occasionally during certain scenes.

It is not a great film by any definition. It is passable for a comedy film but the humour is rare and underplayed.