Friday, August 23, 2013

MAGIC MAGIC - MIFF 2013




Going into MIFF this year, “Magic Magic” was one of my most anticipated films for two reasons.  The first is that “Magic Magic” is a psychological horror film but the main reason I was eager to see the movie was because Christopher Doyle was the cinematographer on the project.  Before MIFF, “Magic Magic” lacked any real momentum in regards to audience or critical reactions due to the fact it had not been screened very often, so it was hard to gauge whether or not the film was going to be any good or not.  Alas, it turned out to be yet another disappointment for me.

The film’s protagonist is the beautiful, but innocent (and very sheltered) Alicia who travels abroad for the first time to Chile to spend time with her cousin, Sarah, and a group of her friends.  Initially nervous for being so outside of her comfort zone, things go immediately worse for Alicia when Sarah is summoned back to the States for an appointment about her future schooling.  It is an appointment she cannot break and as such, heads home immediately, leaving her already nervous cousin in the company and care of relative strangers in a country she has no knowledge of.  Feeling isolated from the rest of the group, mainly due to her being unable to speak Spanish like the rest of them, Alicia continues to become more and more anxious.  Coupled with the fact that she cannot sleep, Alicia’s behavior gets increasingly erratic as time goes on which comes to a head after a bad attempt by the group to hypnotize her.  It gets to the point that Alicia becomes dangerous to herself and those around her, but the question is whether or not she really is having a nervous breakdown or are her delusions that Sarah’s friends are out to hurt her justified?

Reading that synopsis, it gives the impression that “Magic Magic” is going to be an exciting and grim psychological thriller, and while it is true the film is grim, it is also true that it is just not very good.  In fact it is worse than that; I seriously disliked “Magic Magic” bordering on hate.  The thing that irritated me most was Michael Cera’s terrible and whiney performance as Brink, one of Sarah’s friends.  While I applaud Cera’s decision for at least trying something different and darker than he is normally used to doing, sadly it doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t very good here.  There is a smugness to his performance that isn’t earned and his character just comes across as so unlikeable and as a serious dick.  It appears he only exists to antagonize anyone he pleases but when the tables are turned on him and he becomes the victim, he turns into a sook and expects something to be done about it.

The other performances are all a bit of a mixed bag but I thought Australian actress Emily Browning was very good in her role of Sarah, giving some much needed reality to the film although her screen time is far too brief.  Juno Temple has already proven that she is good at playing crazy and she does so again here and impresses.  Totally wasted however is Catalina Sandino Moreno as Barbara whose role is completely insignificant to the main plot.  For the majority of the movie she is either bitching about something (or someone, usually Alicia) or studying away from the rest of the group and she comes across with a real negative vibe.  Her character is so passive and does so little that it makes you wonder why an established actress would agree to play a nothing role like this.

The main problem with “Magic Magic” is the fact that Chile itself never becomes a character (it could have taken place anywhere the way the place is presented) and the portrayal of hypnosis and voodoo is so hackneyed that it just feels like a gimmick or a convenience to the plot, rather than feeling organic to the story.  “Magic Magic” had all the elements to be a great psychological thriller; an isolated location, the language barrier, a character suffering from anxiety and insomnia surrounded by strangers, but director Sebastian Silva fumbles these elements to the point that the film just never works, let alone lets it build in any natural fashion.  There is no internal flow to the film; everything just feels so forced and it also has quite a mean streak through it.  However Silva makes the cardinal sin of making the film, blessed with all of these great elements, boring.

In regards to the main reason I saw “Magic Magic”, the cinematography is another problem with the film.  This may be some of the worst cinematography I have seen from Christopher Doyle yet.  “Magic Magic” is a dark film, in both tone and visuals (the majority of the film happens at night), but Doyle shoots the film too dark making it impossible to see anything at certain times.  The visuals also never seem to compliment the mood or atmosphere of the film, rather often it actually works against it.  It is very hard to build any kind of suspense when the audience cannot see anything to begin with.  Even the daytime photography seemed to lack the usual inspiration or pizzazz that is usually so prevalent in Doyle’s work.  The only positive thing I can say about Doyle’s contribution to “Magic Magic” is that when the cinematography credits came up, Doyle was actually credited along with Glenn Kaplan, so I am not sure just how much of the film he shot or how much of this mess is his fault (at least in my mind I can blame all of the bad in “Magic Magic” on Kaplan, no matter how unfair that is).

Overall, “Magic Magic” turned out to be yet another disappointment for a film I was looking forward to.  The film has a mean streak throughout that makes it easy to dislike, but with a set-up as good as “Magic Magic” had, it is still a bit of a shock just how bad it really is.  To top it all off, the film has the distinction of having some of the worst cinematography I have seen yet from the great Christopher Doyle.


1.5 Stars.


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