Cinema Reviews

Magic Magic Review

17th Apr 2014

Alice is a young woman who travels to Chile to be with her cousin Sarah and her friends. Only Sarah leaves her slightly in the lurch. Left to travel on with Sarah’s friends she instantly feels like the gooseberry of the bunch. Suffering from deep insomnia she begins to lose her grip on reality and eventually starts to head towards a mental breakdown.

In the end the film doesn’t walk a clear enough line to define itself as a thriller, and the drama is therefore filtered into the obscure.

Getting a handle on the characters is perhaps the film’s toughest sell as pretty much everyone is shown at their most unlikeable. Michael Cera takes the biggest gamble (and is onboard as a producer as well) as he plays one of the most unlikable characters seen in recent cinema history: A man-child who is unrelenting in his game playing and foul mouthed jokery. Even when he has the table turned against him he becomes a despicable leech. Despite this, Cera affirms his reputation as an actor for playing the part convincingly.

Juno Temple in the lead is perhaps the least surprise as she for years now is used to playing off-beat roles in indie cinema (Killer Joe, Kaboom!). It’s a good performance for her, but her career choices now are starting to appear all the more predictable the further away she stays from the Hollywood mainstream.

Magic Magic isn’t likely to have too much of a lasting effect on viewers beyond the imprint of having to spend time with people you’d wish you could get away from.