The Inconceivables

Although film can sometimes be real magic, magicians don't always have it easy, even in cinema. Most recently, the amusing but unfortunately not particularly successful Burt Wonderstone could tell you a thing or two about it. But now director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter) sends a whole troupe of illusionists onto the screen, who are not only supposed to amaze the audience, but first and foremost to entertain them. And The Incredibles pulls it off with flying colors.

A mysterious invitation brings together the four magicians Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), his former assistant and celebrated escape artist Henley (Isla Fisher), mentalist and hypnotist Merritt (Woody Harrelson), and up-and-coming magician and pickpocket Jack (Dave Franco). Together, as The Four Horsemen, they are to present the ultimate show in Las Vegas, where the audience is shown illusions the likes of which the world has never seen before. A year later, this show actually goes on stage, with the audience's enthusiasm hardly wanting to end after the spectacular finale. For the four have achieved something impossible: they make an audience member disappear and reappear in the vault of a Paris bank. Before the eyes of the confused man, several millions go up in smoke, which then rain down on the audience in Las Vegas. It all looks like a perfect illusion. But when it turns out that millions of euros have actually disappeared in said Paris bank, it calls FBI agent Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) into action. Together with his Interpol colleague Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) he wants to put a stop to the magicians. But they, of course, have a few tricks up their sleeves to wow people and drive the FBI to despair. Only the legendary Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who makes his living disenchanting illusions, could screw up the Four Horsemen's tour.

The Incredibles isn't necessarily a spawn of logic. The emphasis here is clearly on fun. And that's simply only possible when the story and its various twists and turns aren't scrutinized too much. Granted, the grand finale is a bit of a letdown and does seem a bit like lazy magic. But the way to it is so entertaining, cleverly constructed and well acted that it's hard to be angry at the end that you feel like you've been hoodwinked somehow after all. Leterrier's production is so fast-paced, peppered with amusing verbal exchanges and engagingly staged trickery, that not for a second does anything like boredom arise.

Rapid chases alternate again and again with the spectacular tricks of the four magicians, who are all unmasked in the course of the film, but lose nothing of their entertainment value as a result. The fact that Leterrier was able to gather a really great ensemble of actors in front of the camera is the icing on the cake of a very tasty whole. When great up-and-coming talent like Jesse Eisenberg or Mélanie Laurent meet great veteran stars like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, when Woody Harrelson gets to play wonderfully smug against a very dogged Mark Ruffalo, it just makes watching it that much more fun.

Sure, really meaty The Inconceivables is not. But the movie doesn't even try to be anything more than pure entertainment either. It`s light-hearted popcorn fun that feels a bit like David Copperfield`s version of Ocean`s Eleven, spiced up with some crisp action interludes. If you don`t expect more and generally don`t get on the nerves of the people sitting next to you with "That`s completely illogical", you will definitely have a lot of fun with this US surprise hit. Therefore: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp