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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Actors: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini
Director: Don Scardino

PG-13 2013 1hr 40min

There's no sleight of hand to the crowd-pleasing comedy of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. If anything, it's all a little ham-fisted. But as a vehicle for Steve Carell and especially Jim Carrey, this playful romp about pr... more »ofessional magicians and the sleazy glamour of Las Vegas showbiz is a thoroughly amusing trifle, even if it disappears from the imagination as quickly as an illusionist's assistant. When they were 12 years old, Burt Wonderstone (Carell) and his best friend Anton Marvelton (a sweet and funny Steve Buscemi) fell in love with magic. Thirty years later, they've become very long in the tooth about it all, with overly teased wigs to match. Their spray-on tans, glam costumes, and flamboyant routines suggest Siegfried and Roy (without the tigers), but their headlining gig on the Las Vegas Strip is dying from ennui and the egomaniacal lethargy of Burt. He's too busy preening, condescending, and bedding groupies to notice the abyss yawning in front of him. The movie is all too aware of what's in store, however, with the hero's tumble and lesson-learning return to likable hero spelled out every step of the way. The clueless Burt and earnest Anton have an inevitable falling out before an equally predestined reconciliation and triumphant return to a fabulous new Vegas resort, thanks partly to an elaborate trick they first conceived in their innocent wonder as children entranced by the power and spectacle of magic. In addition to Carell's considerable comic skill, the road to his redemption is paved with the excellent support of four other characters integral to the journey. Olivia Wilde does wonders with a woefully underwritten part as the proverbial lovely assistant, and James Gandolfini is cheerfully menacing as the casino mogul who makes, breaks, then makes again the team of Burt and Anton in a character who is nearly as self-absorbed as his pampered performers. But the real wonders come from Jim Carrey and Alan Arkin as extremes of new and old school magicians who have wildly different influences on where Wonderstone has been and where he's going. In one of his best roles ever, Carrey plays Steve Gray, an insufferable "street magician" whose extreme TV show is called "Brain Rapist," and consists mostly of gruesome performance art (think caricature of David Blaine and Criss Angel--the filmmakers certainly did). Carrey steals every scene, whether scream-snoring on a bed of coals or banging nails with his forehead. On the opposite end is Arkin as Rance Holloway, the once dashing prestidigitator who first inspired Burt and ultimately restores his faith in the true magic of, well, magic when he finds Holloway secluded in an entertainers' retirement home. Jay Mohr and Brad Garrett also pop up briefly in perfectly tuned cameos. As much fun as all the pieces are, there's a nagging sense that everyone involved missed a great opportunity to create something sly, clever, and insidery rather than simply going broad. Incredible may not leap to mind as an overall assessment, but funny certainly does, and that's a fine measure of success in itself. --Ted Fry