‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ movie review: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and company cast a jolly spell for the third time

Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), the sleight-of-hand specialist, took the words from our mouths and minds when he says the pandemic, AI and other things have created a need for magic. While magicians talk of illusions and deception being their stock in trade, an important component in a magic act is the audience and their need to believe.

Even if we know it is all smoke and mirrors, that two-hour escape from our grimy lives into glittering world where the laws of physics are elastic, is the right medicine to take on further slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Ten years after the events of the last film, the magicians known as the Four Horsemen — Danny (Jesse Eisenberg), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack, split up.

A new trio of magicians, Charlie (Justice Smith) impressionist Bosco (Dominic Sessa) and locksmith/pickpocket June (Ariana Greenblatt), rob a smarmy tech bro of his ill-gotten gains using deepfakes and holograms of the original Four Horsemen.

Just as they are gloating over their success, Danny arrives at their hideout and after dissecting their performance, says he was directed by a tarot card and the Eye to get the three for a high-stakes heist.

The mark is Veronika (Rosamund Pike), all-round wicked lady who owns diamond mines and is selling to the worst of the worst apart from laundering their money. The job is to rob The Heart, the largest diamond in the world, from Veronika.

A still from ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’
| Photo Credit:
Lionsgate

There follows thrilling sleights of hand, illusions and mental gymnastics in a glittering trip around the world with stops in France and Abu Dhabi.

Some old friends including fifth horseperson, Lula (Lizzy Caplan) and Yoda-esque mentor, Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman) drop by. The surprise cameo at the very end, setting up for part 4 is welcome too.

The heist sequences with misdirection and prop switching are breathtaking as is the escape from the gracious French castle using the Ames room where everything is upside down or is it?and Relativist stairs leading everywhere and nowhere.

There are snappy, quotable quotes as the ensemble cast riff off each other, while Pike is frosty and imperious with an accent and wardrobe to match. At under two hours, the third installment of the Now You See Me franchise, directed by Zombieland and Venom’s Ruben Fleischer is undiluted fun.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is currently running in theatres