Movie Review: Burt's So Good

Abra-Carell-Dabra! In The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, our favorite Office-mate Steve Carell has been transformed from a middle manager into a middling magician, with equally hilarious results.

Together with his longtime BFF Anton Marvelton, who's played by Steve Buscemi, Burt (Carell) headlines a nightly illusion show in Vegas. The act, which has them dancing to cheesy 80s music in sequined velvet unitards, has turned the duo into big stars. But as we learn in the movie's opening scenes, they'd been outcasts as children—Burt a bully magnet; Anton a sunken-eyed asthmatic. ("Aren't you the kid who's always in the nurse's office?" Burt asks when they meet in grade school. "No, sometimes they take me to the hospital," Anton blithely replies, just one of the fun throwaway lines this flick's chockablock with.) Only when the boys learned magic tricks did their social lives take off.

Smug about his escape from dweebdom, Burt's grown up to be a narcissistic jerk. His assistants take flight more often than his collection of hat-trick doves. He's due to be taken down a notch, and fate is happy to oblige. A new magician (Jim Carey) billed as "The Brain Rapist" shows up on the Strip, with tricks that are literally cutting-edge. Burt and Anton suddenly seem more like Burt and Ernie, unable to match Grey's physically punishing brand of flair. Their act—which includes their latest assistant, Jane (Olivia Wilde)—breaks up. Since Burt's powers don't extend to money management, he's soon down and out.

The movie then settles in to its central plot: Burt's struggle to reinvent his act and himself, repairing old relationships and forging new ones. Yet the journey to redemption, so often a yawn-fest in similar movies, is a delight. There are awesome magic tricks, but also great supporting characters, most notably Alan Arkin as Burt's idol-turned-reluctant-mentor. You'll do popcorn spit-takes during their exchanges, some of which consist solely of screamingly funny facial expressions. Far weaker are the scenes with Olivia Wilde, whose emotions run the gamut from concern to consternation. (Yeah, that's, like, one emotion.)

Still, Jane, Bert and Anton make loveable underdogs, and you'll be rooting for them to have their day. Do they succeed? A true movie reviewer never reveals a film's secrets. See for yourself! You'll leave feeling surprised that nearly 2 hours of your life have mysteriously vanished—without you checking your watch a single time.

Note: This film has a bit of violence and a few squeamish moments. And a romantic scene in which Burt's about to make a certain body part of his, ahem, magically hide somewhere may yield a few uncomfortable questions from the young'uns. I'd only take a savvier kid to this flick, which has a PG-13 rating.

Author Abra-ca-Deborah Skolnik is a senior editor at Parenting magazine, the Scarsdale mother of two, and a former sunken-eyed childhood asthmatic.