‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ — Isla Fisher returns sharper than ever, Rosamund Pike joins as a vain villain

It’s been almost 10 years since the second movie in the Now You See Me franchise was released, but the magicians are back together for more hijinks in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (now in theatres). Beloved characters played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman are joined by a new crew, played by Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith and Ariana Greenblatt, who bring an electric and fresh energy to the film.

In Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the Horsemen reunite after a show by a group of young illusionists leads to a message from The Eye, a secret society of magicians worldwide that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. The target is Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a corrupt South African diamond magnate in possession of the rare Heart Diamond, and the heist takes the Horsemen and young magicians around the world, from New York to Abu Dhabi, to bring down Veronika.

With this film helmed by director Ruben Fleischer, who previously worked with Eisenberg and Harrelson on Zombieland, Fleischer aimed to amplify the humour in this film, capitalizing on the already well-established comedic skills of the entire cast.

“Ruben is two things, he’s a comedy nerd and he’s a magic nerd. So he just loved every element of this movie,” Eisenberg told Yahoo Canada. “He wanted the actors to also be funny, bring our sense of humour to it.”

In addition to the comedy, this film effectively navigates the big swings from funny to heartbreaking moments for our magicians.

“These actors are all so funny. Isla is hilarious, Dave Franco, Jesse and Woody, obviously, and so for me as a director, I just want to mine all the comedy I can,” Fleischer said. “Because at the end of the day, we just want this film to be entertaining. That’s our goal, to provide an escape for audiences.”

“There’s a line in the movie where you say, ‘The world needs magic more than ever,’ and I kind of feel that’s the case. So as a director, I really wanted to just show the full spectrum of experience, whether that’s comedy, action, suspense, and then also there are some moments of sadness as well. And so that gives the movie stakes. It makes [you] more emotionally invested in the characters’ journey. There’s a great scene that exists between Woody and Rosamund that wouldn’t have been able to take place had it not been for some of the more difficult scenes that preceded.”

Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley, and Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate)

‘It was important to me that the movie feel like a magic trick’

Just like the previous films in the franchise, much of the fun in the story comes from the magic tricks. There’s an almost child-like joy that you feel watching a Now You See Me movie, and it is part of what makes each film so special. For Ruben, there was a real commitment to make the audience feel like they’re at a magic show when they watch Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, and his work pays off in the final product.

“That’s what I set out to achieve, was to provide the experience for film goers of going to a live magic show,” Fleischer said. “I’m a huge fan of magic and have attended many, many magic shows, and really just delight in that feeling of wonder you get when you’ve seen a great trick.”

“I wanted the magic in this movie to be as practical as possible and not rely on visual effects to achieve it. I wanted to feel as if the magicians themselves were performing it, and everything could actually be done in real life, and not rely on sorcery or something like that. But then, in addition to that, it was important to me that the movie feel like a magic trick as a whole. So we have a big reveal at the end of the movie that hopefully provides a big surprise for audiences when the trick is ultimately revealed.”

One of the best scenes in the franchise is in Now You See Me 2, when the Horsemen pass along a card as they’re being searched, without being detected. The continuity of that moment impressed fans, and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t has its own moment of similar excitement, when each magician shows off their particular trick, one after another.

“It was actually two takes split together, but it feels like one take, and it was really important to me that we do it without a cut, because if you’re holding something in your hand and then you cut, and now the thing has disappeared, the audience subconsciously knows that you’ve manipulated it through editing,” Fleischer explained.

“[The tricks] were all shot in real time, and it’s real choreography, where the camera has to be able to show the actor perform the trick, and then wrap around and show the next person. And it’s this dance between the actors and the steadicam operator that required quite a lot of rehearsal. And then obviously the actors themselves had to rehearse their tricks a lot of times, because if you’re number seven in line, if one, two, three, four, five and six go great, and you botch seven, we’ve got to start back at the beginning again. It was like a little bit of a high-wire act, and it took quite a few takes in order to achieve it, but when I called cut on that final take and we knew that we had it, everybody just erupted in cheers, because we’re all so proud that we had succeeded in making that shot.”

Woody Harrelson as Merrit McKinney, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Dave Franco as Jack Wilder, Justice Smith as Charlie, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves, and Ariana Greenblatt as June in Now You See Me, Now You Don’t (Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate)

A stellar cast to excite fans

The anticipated make-or-break moment for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is whether the new cast members can fit into the dynamic already established by the Now You See Me veterans, and that part was certainly a success.

One of the most appealing pairings is Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) and Bosco (Dominic Sessa), who have this endearing, sarcastic banter throughout the film that’s a pleasure to watch.

“Jesse’s character in the first film has this very arrogant sort of air about him, and self-confidence,” Sessa said. “And I think Bosco in this movie sort of holds a lot of those same character traits.”

“And now that Atlas is a little bit older, maybe a bit more mature, he still retains some of those things, and sees that in Bosco, and maybe that encourages him to engage in that confrontation, so to speak. But I think it’s fun to kind of, now that there’s a new generation, to sort of see us in these older characters in a lot of ways, it’s a cool element to the film.”

“Dom loved the first movie, and so he had years to practice bantering with me,” Eisenberg added.

“It was immediately fun. The best thing about the new three actors is that they’re great actors. … So it all just felt natural and fun. Dom and Justice and Ariana all would improvise. The first scene that we shot together was this three-day scene where I am coming to recruit them for this trick. And it was just amazing. … I was just overwhelmed and so impressed by how quick they were.”

But for all the existing Now You See Me fans, we’ve been anxiously waiting for the return of Isla Fisher’s Henley Reeves, who wasn’t in the second film. She’s a mom now, and while the film doesn’t have all the time in the world to dive into everything she’s experienced since we last saw her, Fisher finds that great balance of giving us the Henley we love, but with a bit of a shift that pings for the audience that there’s been some evolution in the character.

“You don’t have the real estate on a big-scale movie like this to do too much characterization, but it was nice that we touched on it the way we did, and we kept the story moving,” Fisher said. “And, of course, Henley’s a legend, and she’s dangerous, and she’s brilliant at her job, and she brings a lot to the world. And so it was an honour to bring her back.”

Rosamund Pike as Veronika in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate)

‘That’s a woman who lies’

But we can’t discuss characters without diving into Rosamund Pike’s delicious and outrageously vain portrayal of Veronika. She’s absolutely a highlight of the whole film.

The actor shared that she’s a fan of the franchise and was intentional about stepping into this world, wanting to ensure that she had something to contribute to what has already been established and loved by fans.

“I love these movies. I hesitated to be in one because I thought, do I have something new to bring to this sort of villain role?” Pike said. “And then I think once I started exploring the South African-ness of Veronika, and the whole idea of someone who works in the diamond business and is selling that illusion. Everything about diamonds that’s romantic, the love, the engagement, everything that’s packaged to the world, and then there’s this sort of ruthless woman behind it, I kind of love that contradiction. That there’s nothing soft or syrupy about her, and yet she’s having a wonderful time.”

“I needed her to be vain. … I wanted her to be enjoying her own power in the world, in the boardroom. I wanted her to be someone full of contradiction, someone who says she’s a girl’s girl, thinks it’s really important that women are in positions of authority now, and becoming CEOs, and she really embraces all the women in her company. And then you go into the boardroom, and there are zero women. I think that’s a woman who lies. There are many of them, we know there are. And so to put that on screen was fun for me.”

Applauding Ruben Fleischer’s work as a director, the Saltburn star loved how he would allow the cast the “play” as their characters.

“Ruben loves the characters in his movies. He just likes watching them. So he would indulge us doing not only improvisation, but even things like, when Veronika’s being photographed for Vanity Fair, … to pose like that is sort of a dream,” Pike said. “To me, it’s very funny that, because it sort of is what people do, but it also isn’t, … and sort of playing with that, hovering just above reality, is where I like to play.”

“He also knows that audiences love to be surprised, and he’s come up with so many delicious surprises in this film. And, obviously, it’s a film about magic, and there are going to be surprises, but we’ve sort of made sure that they keep on coming for an audience right the way through.”