John Malkovich plays the title character, a fictionalized version of the Amazing Kreskin, whom those old enough to watch Johnny Carson may remember. However, the story is set in the present day, when Buck travels from mid-size city to mid-size city, playing to half-empty theaters, doing an act that hasn’t changed in decades. It’s like The Wrestler if Mickey Rourke had played a mentalist, only told from the viewpoint of his new assistant, played by Colin Hanks. (Colin’s dad Tom plays…his dad in a couple of scenes.) The assistant wants to be a writer. Later, he meets a girl (Emily Blunt). He’s a likable but generic character. Malkovich’s Howard, more interesting, is a temperamental sort, full of peculiarities like his (and Kreskin’s) roundhouse, arm-pulling handshake, but after you’ve seen him onscreen for ten minutes, there’s not much else to be learned. And no, you don’t learn how he does his tricks. Not one. The implication is that there is none. But the movie could use a few.
IMDB link
viewed 3/18/09 at Ritz Bourse (screening) and reviewed 3/19/09
No comments:
Post a Comment