By Isaac Siegemund-Broka
Staff Writer
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is similar to a standard magic trick—not terribly inventive, but still able to leave you with a smile on your face.
Director Don Scardino’s “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” owes its success to the cast’s brilliant execution of a decently funny script. Though its structure and directing are sub-par, the film’s intriguing magic-driven storyline allows its stars—Steve Carell and Jim Carrey—to do what they do best: entertain.
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is the story of two friends—Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi)—brought together by the wonder of magic and, subsequently, torn apart when their tricks become a career rather than an art. To make things worse, Wonderstone quickly falls out of the limelight when he is replaced by the wildly popular street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose ability as a magician is completely outweighed by his penchant for self-harm; one of his biggest tricks is magically drilling a hole in his head. Wonderstone and Marvelton must patch their relationship and work together to show the world (more accurately, Las Vegas) that magic is about amazement, not shock.
The plot of “Burt Wonderstone” is relatively derivative, utilizing a generic plot structure as it introduces a problem, weaves in a detail and uses the detail to solve the problem. Along the way, Wonderstone falls in love with a beautiful woman (Olivia Wilde), friendships are repaired and Alan Arkin is fun in his appearance—in other words, the bases are covered. Regardless, the storyline behind “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is already relatively inventive in content, so the simplicity of its structure is less of a disappointment than an unobtrusive framework in which Carell and Carrey can work.
Carell spent six years on “The Office” learning how to be simultaneously likeable and contemptible, and he puts this skill into practice superbly as Burt Wonderstone. Wonderstone, bullied as a child, is an underdog who made it; Carell’s performance is both pleasing because he made something of himself and disappointing in the insensitive egoist his success has turned him into.
Screenwriter Jonathan Goldstein has said that Carrey’s character was originally relatively dull, and it was Carrey himself who created Grey’s almost divine image. As such, Carrey completely embodies the role—his cold spiritual interjections are laden with pretentious sincerity, while his more eccentric scenes ring of the classic, energetically eccentric Carrey from “Ace Ventura” or “Bruce Almighty.”
Steve Buscemi is known for being rather homely, so more jokes are made about the character than by him. Regardless, his character’s genuine, genial nature serves as a nice foil to Wonderstone’s nasty arrogance, and when he and Wonderstone team up again, their chemistry is heartwarming.
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” excellently satirizes the often rough life of a performer, tapping into the dry humor potential when Wonderstone loses his luxurious life of fame and must attempt to live like the plebeians, as he sees most of his audience. The film also features some clever banter between the cast of comedy greats, and Arkin is pleasantly funny though he clearly reuses his “likeable, boisterous old guy” image from “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Argo.”
As obvious as it sounds, another quality component “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” has going for it is the magic itself. The tricks are quite amusing, and seeing them from the magician’s perspective is a small glimpse into what is, for most people, a very foreign trade.
Good comedy is harder than it looks—it requires the right cast and the right script. “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is nothing genius, but luckily, it has both. “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is rated PG-13 and is playing in theaters everywhere.
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