After performing their Las Vegas stage show for a decade, magic double act Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton’s (Steve Buscemi) biggest illusion is hiding how much they’ve come to loathe each other. Threatened by the rise in popularity of street magic, personified by Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), the star of popular cable show Brain Rapist, the pair’s attempts to update their performance has disastrous consequences, and it’s only through getting in touch with the sense of wonder that drew them into magic in the first place that their relationship can be salvaged.
That The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is credited with four separate writers doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The film spends most of its running time figuring out what kind of story it’s trying to tell, never settling on anything in particular to give it any degree of coherence. The advancement of the new and sensational over the safe and traditional; a broken friendship trying to repair itself; the rekindling of passion for a profession you once loved; a self-absorbed protagonist learning humility all are dabbled with but none are settled upon.
It’s the last of these that informs more of the disjointed scenes than others. However, Burt is so fundamentally unlikable you end up not actually caring that his life crumbles around him, mainly as it was all his own fault. He treats his few friends like crap (“I’ve worshipped you for ten years and you’ve just made me hate you in sixty seconds), cares about nothing save for money, has an incredibly inflated sense of self-importance and is so ridiculously sexist it’s almost pitiable (“It’s not that girls can’t do magic; men are just better at it).
Jim Carrey’s Steve Gray is something akin to an amalgamation of Criss Angel’s arrogance and David Blaine’s ego and is supposed to be the antagonist, but in reality, aside from being extremely annoying (from both a character and viewer perspective), he doesn’t actually do anything particularly antagonising, making his entire performance feel almost tacked on.
Olivia Wilde is once again wasted in an underwritten role giving her little more function than eye candy. The DVD cover even differs from the cinema poster by badly photoshopping in a picture of her in a showgirl outfit. Despite the limited expectations held of her, how she handles what little material she’s given only indicates how much more screen time she should have been given. Further underused potential comes in the form of Steve Buscemi, whose versatile range is squandered in a part that’s basically a stagnant plot device.
Magic is supposed to be an awe-inspiring spectacle making you believe, even if just for a moment, that anything is possible. The film repeats this sentiment on several occasions, which only serves to highlight just how lacklustre and uninspiring what little of it we’re shown truly is. The film as a whole provokes much the same reaction.
Overall Verdict: A strong cast let down by a weak and incoherent script, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is meandering in plot, inconsistent in tone and really not all that funny.
Special Features:
Gag Reel
Reviewer: Andrew Marshall