Love and Magic: A Valentine’s Day Retrospective
I’m a big Valentine’s Day defender. For those who deride it as a consumerist showboating Hallmark holiday, I say, do you not believe in love?
If you don’t personally celebrate the holiday for whatever reason, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but hear me out. The post-Christmas months are bleak, especially in a Midwest winter, so you have to find joy where you can.
But more than that, when you’re with someone you love, sometimes the day-to-day becomes routine. Setting aside time to put in a little extra effort and remind yourself why you like them is nice. This is especially true in long-term relationships—you don’t want to let the little things slide. It reminds me of this quote from When Harry Met Sally:
“You take someone to the airport, it's clearly the beginning of the relationship. That's why I have never taken anyone to the airport at the beginning of a relationship. Because eventually things move on and you don't take someone to the airport and I never wanted anyone to say to me, ‘How come you never take me to the airport anymore?’”
I realize there’s a pre-9/11 context when you used to walk someone to their gate, but as that quote haunts me, I did indeed take my husband to the airport recently. Parked the car, walked him to security, the whole thing. Because I believe in love and keeping the magic alive (remember that phrasing).
Let’s get back to Valentine’s Day. You might think I’m a traditionalist, and I am in the sense that I love chocolate and novelty candy. But like New Year’s Eve, I hate waiting, crowds, and overpriced prix fixe menus. Long ago, my husband and I established a tradition of sparkling wine, takeout, and an action movie.
I know this seems like an ironic, anti-romantic genre choice, but it’s where our tastes overlap (he likes painfully slow sci-fi and horror; I like movies I owned on VHS as a kid and The Godfather). Especially now that we’re parents and can’t get our 7-year-old to watch Die Hard no matter how many times we ask, this is our time to be grown-ups together.
This year, we went with Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the third of the Now You See Me films with hands down the best name (and yes, heist movies absolutely count as action).
(Minor spoilers ahead)
For those unfamiliar, the Now You See Me universe stars the Four Horsemen: Jesse Eisenberg plays the smarmy illusionist; Woody Harrelson is a hypnotist/mentalist who goes hard on the bayou accent; Dave Franco is another illusionist who picks pockets and locks and wields weaponized playing cards; and Isla Fisher is the girl magician who gets replaced by a different girl magician in the second film, but they both return for the third (and it’s clumsier than it sounds).
The basic premise is these guys use their magic for justice heists, real Robin Hood stuff. They steal from bad guys and give the proceeds to less bad people. There’s other stuff going on, like a secret magic society and Morgan Freeman is there, but don’t worry too much about all that.
Was this movie good? I don’t know if I’d go that far. Did I absolutely love this movie? Yes, I did.
I adore magic. One of the greatest moments of my life was being pulled onstage as a volunteer at the Rick Wilcox Magic Show in the Wisconsin Dells. He turned a bubble into a marble before my very eyes. I was a real “How’d he do that???”
But magic in movies is hard. How do you wow someone when magic is so easy to fake with simple camera tricks? You get actors to learn some actual magic and commit to the bit, that’s how.
As a caveat, this movie has its flaws: too many characters (just look at that movie poster), and the dialogue was clunky, often expositional, although sometimes it circles back around to being so bad it’s charming.
But let me count all the ways I love this movie:
The Politics. This is a real line from the movie: “Wars. Pandemics. Climate change. AI. Let’s face it: Y’all need magic more than ever.” That sums up exactly what the movie is going for. Yes, I cheered when they totally humiliated a crypto bro who cheated people out of millions. As I mentioned, the moral crux is stealing from bad people and watching the baddies get their comeuppance. That said, the final scene takes place in Abu Dhabi, showcasing a beautiful tourist destination in a country built and maintained through modern-day slavery, so the anti-capitalist sentiment is maybe a bit hollow. But I still have fun railing against the system through magic tricks.
The Magic Action. They kept the movie going along at a nice clip, and the magic was incorporated in a fun way. It felt believable and simple, at least in a movie kind of way.
The Villain. Rosamund Pike is sensational as a super duper evil diamond cartel leader, absolutely nailing the rich-lady-in-the-Hamptons wardrobe and what I assume is a competent South African accent. I started applauding when she came on screen (it may also have been the champagne).
Nerdy Magic Stuff. Houdini’s straight jackets, Pepper’s Ghost illusions, sleight of hand, so much fun stuff for the magic lover!
Practical Sets. This is very specific, but my favorite scene is in a magic château where they tour a mirror maze, a forced-perspective room, and an Escher-style staircase. The sets are beautifully constructed, and the entire tour exists solely to stage a chase scene through all of them. Cinema.
Superfluous magic. They do magic just to show off. There’s a great scene where they keep one-upping each other with tricks, including one where Isla Fisher clearly came prepared with a quick-change outfit, and it in no way advances the plot (see below). Or there’s a fight scene where they throw a flash grenade and Jesse Eisenberg and Dave Franco switch places for no reason except that the choreography may have been getting dull.
Violence. Despite all the elaborate heists and clever magic, they solve a surprising amount of problems with a punch or blunt object to knock a bad guy out.
Found family. I said to David that this movie feels a bit like the Fast and the Furious films, all spectacle with some loose theme about “family” and togetherness. Except I don’t like cool cars, but I do like a card trick, so this film wins.
So this Valentine’s Day, I was in the moment, connecting with the person I love most and delighting in James Franco taking down heavily armed security men with playing cards.
Musical aside: For romantic reasons, I took a suggestion from my cool music husband. This week’s album was Young Team by Mogwai:
It's what I can only describe as groovy and delightful noise. Excellent music to work to, have been listening to it while writing this very post. Enjoy!