The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

 

Watching The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was a strange experience.  It would be playing out up there on the screen - pleasant enough, but not really building to anything.  All of a sudden, out of the blue, there would be a huge laugh or a dark joke that would completely catch me off guard, and make me laugh out loud.  Considering no other comedy released so far this year has been able to accomplish that, it was a wonderful feeling, even if it was scattered, instead of consistent.

I can't quite call Burt Wonderstone a great comedy.  Yes, it's funny, but the stretches between the jokes that hit really hard are often too long.  It is nice and quite likable all the way through, however.  Maybe a bit too nice.  I wanted the movie to be a bit meaner, to take a few more chances.  It does from time to time, and when it does, those were the moments when I found myself laughing so hard.  But the movie mainly wants to be a nice little redemption story about Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell), a stage magician who becomes an insufferable egotist when his act hits Vegas and becomes a success.  The bulk of the movie is about him losing it all, and then learning to be a better person as he tries to recapture the fame he once had.   This works well enough.  I liked Carell's performance, I liked his character, and I liked his co-stars.  It was all very pleasant and enjoyable.  I just kept on wishing the movie would show its edge a bit more often.

When we first meet Burt, it's 1982, and he's an unpopular preteen who's a target for bullies.  His mom buys him a magic kit for his birthday, which comes with a video cassette hosted by his hero, the magician Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin).  On the video, Rance proclaims that everyone loves a magician and a magic act.  Burt takes these words to heart, and begins practicing his own magic routine, hoping to make friends that way.  The only kid he's able to impress is Anton Marvelton, the only kid in school who is as unpopular as Burt.  He grows up to be played by Steve Buscemi.  Burt and Anton become a duo act, and hone their skills until, 20 years later, they're headlining their own magic act at a major casino in Las Vegas.  At first, the act is a success, but as time marches on, Burt has become a pompous and womanizing louse, whom his partner and former best friend, Anton, barely recognizes anymore, and his female assistant, Jane (Olivia Wilde), can hardly tolerate.

With sagging ticket sales, not to mention a stunt intended to freshen up their magic act going horrible wrong, Burt and Anton go their separate ways and the act collapses.  Burt finds himself out of work, and forced to do children's birthday parties and appearances at Big Lots.  Meanwhile, there's a new kind of magician who is rapidly building in fame.  This is Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), a wild-haired and tattooed buffoon who is intended as a parody of Criss Angel.  He even has his own TV show called Mind Rapist, where he performs stunts such as sleeping on a bed of hot coals, holding in his urine for a number of days, or basically self-mutilating his body for the entertainment of the masses.  Carrey's performance here is wonderfully off-kilter, and brings to mind his early days in films such as Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber.  The movie could have used more of him.  Regardless, Burt sees the growing popularity of Steve's sick act as an insult to magic itself, and decides he needs to recapture the feeling he once had when he started show business.  He must mend the bridges he's burned with his friends, and find a new act that will impress everyone.

Burt Wonderstone is at its funniest when it strays from the plot, and comes upon a wickedly funny idea.  One of the funnier moments occurs after Burt and Anton break up their act, and Anton decides to become a humanitarian, visiting impoverished people desperately in need of food and clean water.  I won't spoil the joke, but I will say it's in bad taste, while at the same time being screamingly funny.  That's what this movie needed more of.  It becomes so focused on making the character of Burt into a nice guy who recognizes his mistakes that the movie itself kind of becomes soft, when it should be sharp and edgy.  I guess that's why the film's darker and funnier moments took me so off guard.  The movie is credited to two different screenwriters, with four separate people listed with coming up with the plot.  Something tells me there was a major struggle for control of this film behind the scenes, given the sometimes dual nature of the film itself.

And yet, even though I wasn't laughing, I kind of liked the sweeter elements of the movie, also.  That's why I'm ultimately recommending it.  This is a likable movie, with some very sweet little moments.  I liked the relationship that forms between Burt and his idol, Rance Holloway, when he bumps into the former magician at a nursing home for Vegas entertainers.  And as Burt and Anton, Carell and Buscemi make a great team, and get some good laughs.  I liked all of these characters, and the performances are a lot of fun to watch.  You can tell that Jim Carrey is relishing his oddball role, after years of Oscar Bait dramas and safe family films.  This is a fun and very likable movie that just needed a few more barbs in its humor to really bring this material to its full potential.

 

Even if I was left wishing for more from this movie, I still enjoyed what I got.  It's warm, it's very funny at times, and it features a very talented cast who seem to be having a great time up on the screen.  Sometimes that's all I'm looking for in a movie.  If this movie were a real magic act, it wouldn't blow you away, but you would still applaud the effort.

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